Rainy Days
by stormy.hopes
Summary: [AU Squinoa] I always liked rainy days... the cool feeling of running through the rain. And something special always happens on rainy days. But then again... who says that the special thing is good?
1. The Prologue

**Author's Notes** - This story has under gone _some_ revision, but very little. The first 3 or 4 chapters have been revised after publishing on but those that follow have not. I took too long of a break between writing the first few chapters and the next ones that my writing style changed, so the story doesn't feel as though it flows smoothly anymore. This story _is_ an alternate universe sort of story, so some of the characters may seem sort of out of character, but may not at the same time.

_Rainy Days _- Prologue

* * *

_Rainy days have always been horrible. Wet, cold, windy and gray - they're simply _dreadful_. If there was enough of it, the rain would probably bring the whole day down. Nothing would ever be finished if it rained all the time, because it'd be wet and slippery. You'd get wet, your bags would get wet, the street would be wet - what a drag! I suppose, in a way, they could've been made as punishment for cutting down half the trees in the world - even though we really did need them._

_But even so, with all the negative impacts and feelings that rainy days have, I've always liked the rainy days. I've never found the wet and drippy rain gross at all - but rather, refreshing. The dull gray color that covered the streets was more of a color the comforted me, and let me know that the world was cold. I loved to just sit and listen as the rain bounced off of the pavement, making puddles and soaking us down to the bone. I've always thought that sunny days were overrated - we have too many of them. After all, it only rains a bit more than a hundred days a year, doesn't it? Maybe it all just depends._

_My favorite rain showers are the ones during the summer. It always feels so good after a hot, sticky day, to run out sit, and let yourself get hit by the cold drops. I loved the feeling of being literally cold,; it was almost like a new way of expressing myself. After an hour of the rain dance on the driveway, I'd come in a take a nice, warm bath, and sip hot chocolate while watching horrible sitcoms on TV. I loved it when it thundered, feeling the adrenaline pumping through my veins afterwards. When it did, I'd hug my giant teddy bear tightly, knowing that he was warm and would always be there for me._

_It's hard to see what's so special about the sun. It's a giant flaming ball out in space that just happens to be 30 times larger than the earth. The fact that it'll probably explode one of the these days is a truly comforting feeling. You can't really run through the sun either. When you say you ran through the sun, people would probably stare at you and think you're weird. Run through the sun? What the hell is that?_

_Rainy days are special. They aren't something you see every day. And if something special happens, it's usually raining. I met my best friends on a rainy day. We had gotten off at the same train station and realized we were all going to the same school. We huddled under one umbrella and walked to school together. My first kiss was in the rain, after my boyfriend dropped me off at home. I saw my cousin's baby being boring for the first time on a rainy day. Unfortunately, the rain isn't always very happy. Something usually goes wrong in return for all of the good things. Slipping on the wet grass, flooding, getting stuck in traffic. For me, unfortunately, it was rainy day when -_

* * *

A loud honk from a bus or car snapped me out of my thoughts and my hand froze with the pen still in the writing position. I glanced out the window to see that it was raining - well, drizzling. It wasn't exactly raining, but small drops were coming down from the sky. I got up and stood by the window, to get a better view of whatever was happening outside. There was a rumble of thunder and thunder flashed from far away. I bit my lip. _It's a nice time to go out now... except for the thunder... should I...?_ I turned back to my little journal book that my aunt gave me for my 8th birthday. I had pulled it out earlier and read through my old entries, finding it funny how I went on and on about the little things in life, like what to wear for picture day and how cute the boys from the eighth grade were with their cool new shoes. There were times where I stopped halfway through and entry too, and I didn't write in the diary for years. There was a short section on the first year of high school and that was all that was left. I added on with a fresh start about the rain, but didn't finish my thought. 

_It was a rainy day when... when I decided to forget that I ever even had a love life._

* * *

_You'd think he'd be a bit more intelligent and come up with a decent way to break it to me... _

It was the night after the graduation dance.

**I have to talk to you...**

I was so naive and believed that he really did love me as much as I loved him.

**What about?**

**We're not going to be in the space place next year...** **what if that year apart, we change? What if...?**

He paused. He didn't know how to say it, but I knew what it was.

**Are we breaking up?**

I asked him. It would be a mutual break up that way, right? But I wasn't sure.

He nodded. Yes, we were. But the summer after we both went to college, we'd see what happens, and **maybe we'll pick it up again.** He gave me a final kiss that night, whispering an assurance that we'd most definitely pick up exactly where we left off.

I wished... **hard** that we could've picked it up again. But it didn't happen.

**A year passed... and we met again.** On a rainy afternoon.

We sat in a little cafe talking, catching up on what we missed over the past year apart. I noticed that all the girls in the shop had their eyes on him, and felt so special getting to be the one girl that got to sit with him. But then, a girl came by and whispered something to him, eyeing me. He chuckled softly and quickly made introductions. I didn't bother listening to her name. Just one thing stuck in my head. When he introduced me... **"This is one of my old friends from high school..." "We kind of lost contact" "Yeah, ex-girlfriend-"** then he kissed her. He kissed the little bitch who wore nearly nothing with his arm around her. Although he just kissed her hand sweetly, I despised him right away and wanted to rip him into shreds. He whispered something in her ear, causing her to giggle. The girls still had their eyes fixed on him. It was like he was their god. Perhaps, he was.

So much for picking up right where we left off. He tricked me into believing he loved me... and that I loved him.

* * *

I shook my head, getting myself back from the land of memories. _What happened to you...?_ I always wondered. We cut all ties that summer though, and I avoided him since. 

_... the worst day of my life occurred. I'd never forget it; even without writing it down._

I grabbed my coat of the rack in the corner. _I'm not going to dwell on the past... I already promised myself I won't._ Rain often helped clear out my thoughts. A little rain run wouldn't hurt, would it?

* * *

I stepped through the door, closing it softly behind me and locking it. It rained harder as I got out there and my hair, coat and the clothes underneath were soaked through and through. Luckily I had a carpet in front of my door, so the wooden floors probably wouldn't be too damaged. I slipped off my shoes and made my way through the living room, praying that I wouldn't slip and break open my head. I made it to the bathroom though, and changed into a robe as I let the water fill up the tub for a nice, hot bubble bath. As it filled, I glanced around the room, seeing if everything was the same as I had left it. 

The pen I had been writing with was still on my closed diary, and my computer's rainy screensaver had turned on. The answering machine was blinking though.

_Damn. Someone called._ I scrunched up my nose and made a mental note to listen to the messages after my bath.

* * *

**A/N: **As I had said earlier, these first chapters have undergone revision. Even though they were revised though, the plot line themselves haven't been changed because that would be _much_ too confusing for past readers. So they're still the same length - just as short as they were when they were originally published. They grow to be much longer, I promise. Please review when you can! 


	2. The Date

**Author's Note/Thanks: **Thanks **Evelaunce** for being my first reviewer on this fic! Now I depend on you and Raine to be my two-person audience. Thanks for such a sweet reviews. Actually... I have a mutual feeling about rainy days and sunny days. They both have their pros and cons. To write that first part I just exaggerated a bit and came up with that. I love storms though, they're so fun. I didn't mention who "her" was in the first part, did I? It's kind of obvious, but the point of it was to _not_ mention who it is til later, so... yeah. You won't find out who it was that broke up with her until way later... I think. I'm writing this as I go, so I'm not entirely sure when that'll pop up, but I know it's not in this chapter.** Raine**, you aren't a dork for liking them. P There's lots of people in the world that like them. Besides, being a dork is cool. P Look how I turned out being a dork. lol, sorry, bad example... ;; Anyway... thanks again for the sweet reviews you two! Flame if you must... I'm an oddball, I like it when people criticize me, so go right on.

* * *

I walked out of the bathroom in my pajamas, twisting my wet hair up in a towel. A red blinking light by my phone caught my eye before I got to the kitchen. _Messages_. 

There were three new ones. First from Caraway: "_Rinoa, don't go out into the rain. I know how much you love it... you were always your mother's daughter..."_ he mumbled to himself before continuing on. _"I don't want you getting sick. Oh hell you're probably out there now anyway..."_ The message ended at that. I tutted and started picking at my nails.

The next message started up. It was Quistis calling from her class. She was probably whispering into her small cell phone as she sat in her class, telling me the exact same thing. _Don't go into the rain Rinoa..._

I was tempted to delete the next message at the mere mention of rain. Strangely enough, rain wasn't really a big part of the next message. Instead, a loud cheery voice rang through the speakers, screaming - "Rinoa!"

Selphie, one of my best friends from when I was younger, was always so bright and perky. She, Quistis and I had met at the train station that one day, and had been best friends ever since. Quistis was always the most mature of all us, and Selphie was the more childish one, but always brought sunshine into our lives. I was always the one in between that got along with them both. After Quistis was 'stalked,' as she called it, in our first year up in college by Seifer, Selphie was a bit on the boy crazy side. Somehow she ended up with Irvine, a flirty Western-styled man and Quistis began dating Seifer - though she _swears_ that she only does it to keep him sane. They insisted that I started searching for someone too (after all, my someone had left me), but I never seemed to get around to it.

"It's raining cats and dogs! I know you're out there probably, but I'll say it anyway - don't get sick!" I slammed my hand on the table and put my head down, reaching for the delete button at the same time. _What **is**__it with you people and your obsession with me?_

"Don't delete this yet!" she screamed into the phone, knowing exactly what I was doing. "I haven't told you the good news year! Mmmkay... well, you're going to hate me, but..." she paused. I narrowed my eyes at the machine. Come on... "Quistis and I both know that you're _so_ lazy when it comes to your love life. Sooo... compliments to yours truly - _we found you one!_"

_Oh hell no..._ My eyes widened. _She wouldn't dare. ... but it's Selphie..._

"Oh my _gosh_ Rin, he's so perfect!" She began to describe him (yes, in a message), but I didn't really pay much attention to it. I buried my head in my hands. _No... Selphie... I don't have **time** for boys..._

"Call me back later for more! Or if you want to yell at me. One or the other. Whatever. Bye Rin!"

"What?" I snapped out of my daze. "Oh no! Info for what! Selphie!"

I sighed and deleted all three messages before calling back Selphie. It rang 3 times before she picked up.

"Hello hello!" she brightly answered. "This is Selphie."

"Selphie..."

"Ah! Rin!" she cheered. "Yes! I _knew_ you'd call! So, what time should I tell him to pick you up? How's seven?" she asked rapidly.

"What!" I shook my head, even though she couldn't see me. "No! I-"

She cut me off. "Don't tell me you didn't listen to my message. Or maybe you just deleted all of your messages right away... Honestly Rinoa..." she sighed over dramatically and continued. "Anyway... that guy that I was telling you about. We're doubling tonight - if you say yes that is - you, him, me and Irvy. He's so sweet! I met him today in the cafe with Irvy. Guess what? Cute _and_ sweet! He's _perfect_ for you. Way better than Squall- oops." she got quiet. "Sorry Rin..."

I took a deep breath before answering. "It's fine. I'm over him anyway. It's okay - _really_." I emphasized _really_ to keep her from questioning me.

"Okay, whatever you say. Anyway... this guy..." she continued. "Trust me. He's perfect. He's not like the other guys you've met. Even Irvy approved of him!"

I bit my lip. "I don't know..."

"Just say 'yes' and get it over with Rin!" she whined into the phone. "Please! For me! And Quisty! You haven't been happy with a guy in forever! Please!"

"But-"

"One night," she stated simply. "Just one. If you don't like it, dump him. If you do, keep on going with him."

I sighed in defeat. "Fine. One night. That's all. You swear?"

"I swear." she answered. We said our goodbyes and hung up. I clicked the button on the phone and dropped it beside me.

_Now what am I going to do?_

* * *

It stopped raining around 4 or 5, just shortly after I talked to Selphie. The clouds hung over us like demons ready to jump down and were as dark as clouds could ever get. The only light besides city lights were the rays of the moon that just scarcely peaked through the clouds. I had an uneasy feeling that entire night. A deja-vu feeling of something horrible happening sometime that night. I shrugged it off though, not thinking much about it. It was only a feeling, not a definite sign. 

The doorbell rang just as I finished getting ready. I straightened my hair and ran to the door, slipping on my shoes quickly and opening the door with poise. A young man - _or perhaps boy..._ I was thinking - stood in front of me, and smiled when he saw me.

"Rinoa?" he asked, slightly nervous. I nodded as a response.

Courtesy over took me and I spoke. "Is there something I can help you with?"

He exhaled, glad that he got the correct room. He smiled and pulled out a bouquet of assorted flowers from behind him. "I'm Zell."

I smiled back and accepted the smile. He seemed nice enough. "Thank you," I said, turning to put them on a table not too far fro the door. I picked up my purse and walked out, shutting the door with a click behind me. "Should we get going?"

He nodded and held out his arm to lead me down the stairs to his car. At the car, he opened the door and shut it after I comfortably sat down. He was really nice and kind, and behaved well the entire ride to the restaurant. But for some reason, my stomach twisted and turned. Not because I was nervous though.

_Something's not right tonight..._


	3. The Kiss

**Author's Note:** I apologize for the _very_ long delay. I never meant to put off writing for so long. But alas, I did. Dreadful of me really... thank you andrine, lendmemoni, and Raine for reviewing the last chapter from months ago. Yes, Zell being her date was very unexpected, wasn't it?

**Standard disclaimers apply**

* * *

Zell was nice to me in the car, but the conversation was still kept to a minimum. Or... rather, _I_ kept the conversation down to a minimum. He tried to get to know me a bit better, but short answers were all I was willing to give. 

"So..." he tried again. Every few minutes after an awkward silence he'd start up a new conversation. And only about 5 minutes had passed by in the car. I think he was trying to get to know me, but of course, my stupid gut feelings kept me from talking. "Who was your last boyfriend? I mean... a pretty girl like you can't have been single all this time..." he said. His cheeks flushed, but his eyes were still fixed on the road.

I cracked a smile, and even blushed a bit (although he probably didn't even notice). His boy-like blush reminded me of Squall and how shy he was.

_Stop thinking of Squall! _I shook my head to snap out of it. "Um... no one you'd know." I directed my eyes toward him to see if he was watching me. His eyes flickered over for a moment, but then switched back to the road.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"Well..." _Well he only lives all halfway across the country_, I told myself. I answered him, "He lives kind of far. Not around here."

"Really? Oh, back home huh?" his eyes shifted from the road to me again. "Would it matter if I asked why?"

_Because he's a stupid, arrogant jerk that didn't care for me one bit. _ My eyes narrowed. They didn't stay for very long though - I knew I was in a car with a stranger who would probably think I was mental had he noticed.

"I...um..." I paused. How was I supposed to say 'no' without being rude? "Maybe some other day, Zell." I gave him a faint smile and returned to staring out the window.

A few moments later, we turned into the crowded parking lot of an Italian restaurant. From the outside, it didn't seem too large, but once we got into the restaurant, it seemed to be quite filled. It was a completely different story from the parking lot. The parking lot was pretty full, but we were still able to find a place to park that wasn't the back of the parking lot. Inside, there were still a dozen people without reservations waiting to be seated, and every table at the restaurant was filled. Selphie would've been impossible to spot because of her short figure, but thankfully Irvine was considerably taller and always wore his trademark cowboy hat. With all the people though, even he was hard to find. Zell seemed to know exactly where he was going though, so I walked behind him silently.

Surprisingly, we got to their table quickly. They smiled brightly as they spotted us, and waved to us even though they were only two feet away. Zell pulled out a chair for me and gestured for me to sit. I mumbled a quick 'thanks' to him before sitting down. He sat down across from me and next to Irvine. He whispered something in Irvine's ear while bent over. Irvine nodded, and Zell grinned widely, rubbing his hands together, seemingly excited.

"We got here ages ago, didn't we Irvy?" Selphie asked him, a giggle in her voice. "What took you so long? Don't tell me you got lost, Zell!"

"Of course not!" he spat back, glaring. Evidently he didn't get the sarcasm. "I got there perfectly on time. And she was ready. We just happened to take a while to get to the restaurant, that's all." He mumbled for a while longer about it, with a few distinguishable words such as "show offs" and "always too damn excited for dates." I kicked him gently under the table to get him to stop.

"You don't need to get pushy, I was joking," Selphie told him sternly. "Anyway, we ordered for you, just like you told us to."

His ears snapped up. "Now, are you sure you ordered it right? What if them come out only 3 of them or something?

"Zell, relax. They won't," Irvine said, patting Zell's shoulder. I stared at them confused for a minute, before turning to Selphie for a conversation.

* * *

Dinner went by quickly, and we left. I started to feel better about Zell. He didn't seem all that horrible during the dinner (although I did find it unusual that he was eating hotdogs at an Italian restaraunt, and scary that he could intake so many of them), and Selphie and Irvine got along with him great. Something irked me about his politeness... it seemed almost like he was being _too_ polite, trying much too hard to impress me. But then again, I could've just been thinking too much. 

Selphie pulled me aside as we walked out of the restaurant. "Well?" she whispered to me, as we followed the guys to the car. We distanced ourselves away from them to converse, and every so often Irvine turned back to make sure we were following.

I looked at her waiting to finish her sentence. It never came. "Well what?"

"Well what! What do you mean _'well what'_?" she made it sound like what she was asking was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well? How is Zell?"

"I don't know - ask him!"

"What?" she stood there with a confused expression on her face. I started to walk off, but she held me by my elbow and pulled me back. "No! I meant as a date! Rin!"

"He's..." I paused, not knowing what I thought about him. I glanced at her again and sighed. "... nice. There, are you happy? Can we go?"

"No."

"What!"

"Define to me this... nice." She tapped her chin with a slim pointer finger, squinting at me in a very Selphie-ish way.

I slumped over. "Wha - Selphie...!"

"Come on Rin. All you have to tell me is what you thought about him," she said. She was looking at me with a goofy grin.

"Doesn't nice work?" I mumbled before taking a deep breath and starting to talk. "He's a nice and polite guy; gentleman; funny; has a strange obsession with hot dogs..." I cut off shaking my head at the thought. Selphie still looked at me. "What now? Please don't tell me_ that_ wasn't good enough?"

"... did you have a good time tonight?" That glint was in her eye...

"Fine, you win..." I stuck out my tongue. "I had a good time tonight with my date." She looked at me strangely, and I knew exactly what she wanted. I giggled a bit before getting right in front of her face and saying, "That _yooouuuu_ picked out. Thank you. _Now_ are you happy?"

"Very." She said simply, with a big grin on her face. We laughed and continued walking after the boys who were a great deal further ahead of us because of our pause in the middle of the parking lot.

"So... do you like him?" her eyes lit up, hoping that I did.

"I don't know yet..." I said airily. I really wasn't sure. She started to open her mouth to fight back some more, and I was ready to talk back to her, but then Irvine called over to us.

"You girls gonna be staying at this restaurant all night or can we go home?" he asked, tilting his cowboy hat and winking at us (or rather Selphie - I think). Selphie giggled shyly and blushed ever so slightly. She waved goodbye to me and skipped (_skipped!_ somehow in a dress) to Irvine's car. I walked over to Zell's car slowly and waved to Irvine and Selphie as they drove out of the parking lot.

Zell truly was a gentleman. He had the car door opened for me and shut it carefully after making sure I got in safely. He had the heater turned on in the car to make sure I wasn't cold, and frequently asked me when to turn it off. He asked me during the ride if I enjoyed the night with him. I could only smile politely and nod. He was extremely nice, and had wonderful manners. I did enjoy myself... but for some reason, I wasn't attracted to him in that way. I did like him - it wasn't that I _didn't_ like him. It was just... it felt like I had already decided I only liked him as a friend. I liked him I probably would've liked a brother if I had one - being an only child, I never really knew what loving a sibling was like, but I could imagine it felt like that. The way I liked and cared for Zell was in no way like the way I cared for Squall. Not a single bit...

_But then again - look how Squall turned out..._

The moving scenery out of the window stopped. We arrived at the apartment complex already.

"That was fast..." I mumbled to myself. Zell heard me.

"Well... they do say time flies when you're enjoying yourself," he said with a smile. I smiled back and nodded. He ran over to my door quickly, and had it open for me before I even had my seatbelt off.

"Thank you," I said softly, a small smile lingering on my face. _I suppose this relationship wouldn't hurt... it could work..._

Again, being the gentleman he was, Zell walked me up to my door, making sure I was '_safe_' (as he said). I laughed at his protectiveness. What could happen to me at an apartment complex? Once at my door I told him goodnight and was just about to go into my room. He told a hold of my elbow before I could even step foot into the room. I turned my head towards him and began to ask what was wrong, but the words never came out. I was swept into him and he pushed his lips into mine.

I struggled, pushing his arms and body away from mine - but he was too strong. He didn't budge and held me in the sickening lip lock.

_Well at least Squall never did this!_


	4. The Meeting

**Standard disclaimers apply**

* * *

The sound of a deafening slap rang through the halls. 

I slapped him. Me -_ I slapped him._

I wanted to yell at him - _scream_ at him - tell him how utterly disgusting he was. How he invaded my personal space (even if it sounded childish), how he broke my trust, how his move was horrible - anything I could think along the way. Maybe even that his taste in clothes were horrible.

But it never came out.

I could only stare at him with my mouth wide open, my eyes angry and fierce. My hands clutched my skirt, fighting the urge to attack him and claw him with my nails. He opened his mouth to explain, but like me, he couldn't and could only get his mouth open with his feeling in his eyes. If he had said anything, I didn't hear any of it. I slammed the door in his face and locked it - bolt and all - in a matter of seconds.

My mind reeled. He was such a gentleman - thought it could've been an act. What was he _thinking_? It was disgusting!

I groaned and tugged on my hair (a habit I developed for when I got frustrated). I walked to and fell back into the couch. I let go of my hair and reached for the phone. I hesitated. Half of me wanted to call Selphie and yell at her until she went deaf or I went hoarse. the other half of me told me to find her later at a decent hour and sleep for the time being.

I got up and went to my bedroom. Selphie was in deep trouble the next day.

* * *

Sleeping calmed me down considerably. Though I was still angry, I didn't feel like wanting to strangle Selphie anymore. I had a feeling that the grudge wasn't going to last though - it never really did when it came to Selphie. 

I wasn't able to see her that morning though. We didn't have the exact same courses, so she was in class at the time. I window shopped through the downtown district to pass time. It was one of the perks of being older and going to college. It was never far from downtown, which gave access to unlimited shopping centers. The whole city wasn't a mall (naturally...), but stores usually clumped together in one area to make one giant city-mall-like place. My mind told me that my feet would _no doubt_ take the their toll by the end of the day. Nonetheless, I walked through countless stores, tried on at least twenty pairs of shoes, and twice as many outfits. There were only so many that I really ended up liking though. I bought less that I originally thought I would've.

While walking to the cafe - the center of all things in my world (kind of like in _Friends_) - I felt something cold drip on my head. And then another. And several more. By the time I got to the streetlight two feet in front of me, the drips turned into rain. It wasn't _pouring_, but it definitely wasn't sprinkling. Around me, umbrellas went up, briefcases and jackets were pulled over heads and people ran undercover or into buildings to shelter themselves from the rain. Thankfully, most of my bags were plastic (as with most stores one would shop at). My new clothes were fine.

I stood on the not-so-crowded sidewalk, one of the few to not have an umbrella up, and probably the only one to love it. Shaking water from my eyes, I walked up to the cross walk and pressed the button that would let me cross the street. (A/N - _what is that called again?)_ The big clock that stood in the middle of downtown chimed. It was far, but I could still hear it. I looked down at the watch on my wrist while walking across the road. It was already 5 o' clock. Selphie probably finished her classes ages ago. Knowing her though, she was probably planning an outfit for another date with Irvine. Ever since they began dating, it was uncommon to see her at the cafe past 6. She was probably trying to figure out if she should wear the yellow striped halter? Or the frilly one with the beads?

"Have a nice day..." the cashier said hesitantly, while looking me up and down. I laughed.

"I got caught in the rain," I explained to her, taking a warm paper cup from her hands. She nodded in understanding and turned to the next customer in line as I walked away. I set the cup down at one of the small round tables to stir in some cream and sugar. I took a sip out of the cup and sighed. It was so warm, and I was soaked and cold to the bone.

"And now we know - the cause of Rinoa Heartilly's short stature is the overdose of caffeine in her diet," a male voice chuckled from behind me.

I jumped, and turned slowly to face the person behind me. My eyes widened and my mouth formed an 'o' shape.

"She loves the rain just as much she did two years ago, too," he said, acknowledging my wet clothes.

_Squall._

* * *

**A/N**: Extremely short, I know. Sorry. Some revision done; took out the author's notes that took half the page, etc. and ended up with just this. This is the only chapter this short - I swear.


	5. The Mended Ties

**Quick Author's Note:** Why haven't I updated? I don't know. I didn't feel like it. No inspiration to write. This chapter's gone through revision like 50 times now. I'm never satisfied with my writing. I hate it all. -

**Note to readers-** Reminder, it's an AU fic, I'm throwing off like... everything. If I get something wrong, I'm sorry, but I had to/wanted to change it so that the story would work out the way I want it to.

* * *

_Squall._

I stared at him for the longest time. His eyes still crystal clear and blue, his hair still long, falling in his eyes - oh, he looked _exactly_ as I remembered him! _Exactly like the guy I fell for..._

I shook my head and looked again. He was still there, sitting across from me concern beginning to fill his usually cryptic eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked me, sounding a little worried. "Rin?"

I closed my mouth. "I... umm..." I breathed out softly. _What are you supposed to say when you run into your ex?_ I stood up and quickly left before I could say anything else. I didn't want to be there. Not while he was there._ He still wanted to be my friend._ My eyes watered up as I left. I shouldn't have left him there. I should've talked to him, sat with him for a while, _something_. _ Get over him Rin..._ my mind kept telling me. But I kept walking, further and further away from the cafe, determined to get away from there as old memories resurfaced.

I stepped out into the rain and crossed into a nearby park. I was a long way from home, and it was still raining, but it felt good. The path that ran through the park curved this way and that, under big trees and by open fields. I walked through enjoying the rain, trying to wash away the memories that were flooding my head. I danced a bit in the middle of the park. Swinging my arms around me like little girls dressed up as fairies or ballerinas did. My shopping bags that I still had with me hit my sides as I swung around. The clothes that I had bought were still dry, all wrapped up in their plastic bags. My hair and clothes dripped though, and I needed to get home before I caught a cold.

I walked a bit faster and got to the end of the park ready to cross the street and head home. A car pulled up right beside me and honked its horn. As the window rolled down, I froze. _Oh no, not again..._

"Want a ride?" he asked me. His ice blue eyes seemed to carry signs of worry and he was clearly showing as much emotion as Squall could possibly ever show.

"I... umm... I..." I glanced around, wiping a wisp of hair from my face and scratching the back of my head embarrassed. _What do I say? _As if planning, it started raining harder and with bigger drops. I looked up at the sky. _No!_

Squall looked up too, through his windshield, and then unlocked the door. "Get in," he said simply.

I looked at him carefully, studying him. _Why is he offering me a ride?_

"Look," he said in a very un-Squall like way, "if you don't get in soon, you'll catch pneumonia from staying out in the cold rain for too long. I'll take you home, don't worry."

I was about to snap back at him (for some unknown reason, I'm not even sure), but a hard wind rushed down the street sending sharp, icy raindrops at me. Sighing and shivering, I got into the car with him and gave him the directions to get into the building.

The drive there was silent, except the occasional "Turn left here" or "Keep going until you see the bank" from me. When we got there, it was still raining as hard as ever. I picked up all my stuff and was ready to make a run for it once out of a car, when a thought struck me.

"Would you like to come in?" I asked him. It was the least I could do after all; he did give me a ride home.

He glanced at me and shrugged his shoulders, mumbling "Whatever..." just like he always did.

I directed him towards the underground garage where they let us park, and we took the elevator up to the building. We had reached my room and I had turned the knob before either of us spoke.

"Umm..." I paused, not opening the door yet. I leaned against it, slowly pushing it open. "I warn you, I didn't exactly expect company. It's a slight bit... _messy_... but come on in I guess..." I mumbled the last part.

He followed me in, even with that 'warning' of mine, and quietly shut the door for me. I mumbled a quick thanks, and dropped all fifty million bags that I carried in on the ground by the table.

"Erm..." I scratched my head. My desk and table were in need of dire tidying. Magazines and school books littered and overflowed both. "Make yourself at home." I said with a sheepish grin, picking up the jacket that was thrown on to the couch and offering him a seat. He sat down with a small smirk on his face.

My clothes were still damp and I was cold, but I didn't want to just leave him there, so I slipped on the jacket and walked into the kitchen, making something warm to drink. "What would you like?" I asked him while in the kitchen, not even bothering to see his face. "Coffee? Tea? Biscuits? Cookies?"

"We just came from a cafe," he stated bluntly. "I think that was enough food."

"You sure?"

"Whatever..." he called back. I stuck my head back from behind the wall and caught him looking at my dusty pictures sitting by my desk. _Yup. Definitely need to clean. Must do that one day._

I plopped down on the couch a few minutes after making myself tea, and handed him a cup, though he didn't ask for one. "I may be messy, but I've still got good manners," I joked, winking at him. He just nodded and accepted the cup, holding it to warm his hands.

An awkward silence passed between us. If I didn't speak, then there was no chance of any speaking going on in the room knowing Squall. So I tried to make conversation to ease the discomfort. "Sorry for being such a slob..." I said softy. "My place is a complete mess. If you ever come over again, it won't be this bad..."

"Hnn... typical Rin," he answered back. He didn't smile, but his eyes had a twinkle in them that made me want to attack him if I could've. Of course, he would've attacked me back, even if all I did was throw pillows at him. Naturally, he'd have the reflexes of a hawk - he always did, ever since forever. His height when compared to mine clearly dominated, and would've put him at another advantage as well. Just like what we used to do when we were still together.

The thought of us being together normally would put me down, and make me not only sad but depressed. As that thought flashed through my mind I chuckled. How silly I must've looked though, leaned back in a huge armchair still slightly damp with huge slippers on. Squall looked up at me his eyes asking, "What?"

I shook my head. "Nothing..." I giggled again and sighed. "Just... memories. We have so many, huh?" He nodded in agreement after I wrinkled my nose to ask. For a while we helped each other tell stories all beginning along the lines of "Do you remember when..." and "There was also that time..."

I set down my empty cup just as we finished up a final story and our laughter died down. A half smile still remained on my face. "So... how is everyone?" I asked him. It was actually quite ridiculous of me to ask that, since I was the one who saw everyone really, not so much him.

"They're all still there." he answered for me. "Xu is still working at the office, Cid is still there, you know... the usual. How about here?"

I nodded. "They're... good. I guess. Selphie and Irvine are the happiest unmarried couple in the world, it's sickening-" I rolled my eyes and I swear I heard him chuckle. "Um... Irvine's trying to get me to date this one guy, but it's not really working out so..." I waved my hand. "Anyway... and Quistis is dating this guy named Seifer-"

"Seifer?" he asked, familiarity in his eyes. I nodded.

"Do you know him?"

"Classmate - sort of. He went to Garden."

"Oh..." I softly let out of my mouth. I nodded and continued on. "Anyway, so they're dating and it's really weird." I scrunched my face up. "Irvine and Selphie are just too damn cute it makes everyone sick to their stomachs, but Seifer and Quistis's entire relationship is based on hating each other and making fun of or beating each other up whenever they can." I shrugged. It was sort of weird, but that was how things were with them.

He nodded out of politeness, I could tell. "That's... nice."

I laughed at him and picked up his empty cup to bring it to the sink. On my way out of the kitchen I glanced at the time, and had to look at it twice to make sure it was correct. _Wow... we've been talking for a while..._

"Hey Squall?" I called to him. "Not to be rude or anything, but you might want to get going now..." I pointed at the clock on the wall.

He nodded in agreement and began to get up, but paused. "Rin?"

"Yeah?" I was cleaning up a little bit.

"I don't think... I know the way home." My eyebrows raised and I laughed remembering that I gave him directions here.

"Come on, we'll figure it out for you..." I giggled, looking up maps and directions for him.

* * *

The sun was setting outside, almost completely down, when he left the building. At the door of the main office he paused, and turned to me.

"It was nice... getting to talk to you again," he said quietly. "Sort of like old times."

I smiled back. "Yeah... it was. Remember when-"

"If we have anymore remember when stories I might be here all night, Rin." he joked. I winced jokingly and laughed.

"Just a statement," I told him. "Remember when we - well, I guess I should say _I_ - used to call almost every night, even though we always saw each other during the day any way? Just so that we - actually, just _me_ at first; it took you a while - could tell each other each and every detail of the day?"

He nodded almost smiling. I could see his white teeth flash for a second before his closed his mouth and the smile half disappeared. "You did most of the talking. I mostly sat and listened to your voice."

"It wasn't_ that_ bad now, was it?" I joked, now making exaggerated faced 'questioning' him.

Again I saw the pearly whites flash and hide behind his lips again. "No, it wasn't."

A silence fell between us, and I was just about to shoo him home, but he spoke first.

"Thanks Rin."

"For what?" I tilted my head. I didn't really do that much for him.

"For pulling me out of my shell way back when," he said. He then pulled car keys out of his pocket and swung them on his finger. "I told you I'd be here all night."

"Get going then!" I said, slapping his arm and stepping back behind the doors. "Take care now, ya here?" I closed them to ensure we wouldn't talk anymore, and waved goodbye to him. He waved back with that smile again and walked down to the parking lot where his car sat.

I walked halfway across the lobby when a voice spoke up from behind me. "Who was that?"

I jumped and gasped, my hands flying up to my mouth. I let out a long breath when I saw who it was though. "Whew, Zell - it's just you. Scared me there for a second man." I pat his shoulder in that guy way and walked past him towards the staircase. But he grabbed my arm and held on to me tight.

"I asked you a question. Who was that?" I couldn't tell if it was anger or fear or both in his voice.

"No one..." I said through clenched teeth as I tried to pull my arm away from him. He gripped me tighter though and pulled me closer to him.

"Rinoa..." he said with his face inches from mine. "What did you two do together?"

"You know what?" I said first, my jaw tight and my arm numb. I shook hard and he let go. "What I do is none of your business!"

I made a run for it before he could speak again, and made sure he didn't follow me to my door. _What is his problem?_


	6. The Coincidence

**Disclaimer:** Usual... not mine... I wish... blah blah blah...

**Author's Note:** Writer's block is a bitch. That's all I have to say. Just thought I'd share. xD

Rainy Days: Chapter 5 - Meeting You Today, at the Cafe

* * *

"Selph," I said gathering books and binders in my hand and stuffing some into my bag. "I appreciate your wanting to help me with my love life and all, but honey, I just don't like him." I grabbed a final binder that I carried and we walked out of my room, heading down to our classes.

"He really likes you though, Rin!" she exclaimed was we climbed down the stairs and out the door.

_No kidding, the guy was practically stalking me the other day. _We walked out of the building and into the sun. I slipped on sunglasses that I had perched up on my head.

"Listen," she said seriously while we waited for the street light to change. "Zell used to have hard time with relationships according to Irvy. He didn't have very many loyal companions apparently."

The light changed and we crossed the street.

"I guess that makes sense..." I mumbled to myself.

"What?"

"Nothing," I told her quickly. We kept walking turning a corner here and and crossing the street there, then finally dividing up and walking separate ways to the buildings where our classes were.

"I'll see you later!"

"Yeah. Bye!" I waved to her before crossing another street.

* * *

I walked down the stairs and out of the doors of the old, brick building. Finally my last class of the day was over. It was a ritual almost, for me and Selphie to meet at our usual cafe after our classes on the few days that we had them. Irvine and Selphie usually arrived after me together, and on certain days Quistis would join us along with Seifer. Those days seemed rare though, more than usual because while the rest of us had dropped of half our classes to finish up the required classes for term, Quistis loaded up on more. She was working really hard balancing her school work and an internship that she was able to get at a nearby garden. From what I heard Seifer was still there to bug her, but was also what kept her sane.

The cafe was a bit of a walk from my last class that day, but it was a nice, sunny and warm day that you can't help but take advantage of. There were only so many days when you can almost tan and walk around the city at the same time. I pressed the crosswalk button and opened up my bag to find my sunglasses. Just as I found them, a car pulled to a stop right in front of me and the window rolled down. _Just my luck..._

Ice blue eyes glanced at me when I put my sunglasses on my head instead and walked up to the car. _What do I say?_

"I'm heading towards the cafe," he said bluntly without even a hello. "If you're headed that way, get in."

I grinned. "How'd you know?"

He shrugged. His eyes studied me while I leaned against the car._ 'Are you coming or not?'_ I could almost hear him think.

I stood up straight and backed up from the car. "Thanks, but... no thanks. It's a nice day, Squall. Take advantage of it while you can."

"I thought you were a rain person," he said, sounding so serious. I could tell by a flicker in his eyes he wasn't though, and was just trying to start a light hearted conversation.

"I can enjoy both the sun and the rain, thank you," I moved my sunglasses from the top of my head to my face. "I'll meet you there."

He nodded and the windows rolled up again. His car sped off down the street.

* * *

Apparently taking advantage of the warm day had taken quite a bit of time, because by the time I got to the cafe, Selphie and Irvine were already there looking at some magazine together. I saw Squall hiding in a corner and smiled at him. He nodded in acknowledgement, but didn't seem to want to be noticed yet.

I ordered at the counter quickly, adding on to Selphie and Irvine's orders, and sat down with them. Selphie jumped up at once and began flipping through pages to show me the many things that she wanted, ranging from jewelry and perfume to bright yellow chocobo pajamas that she just "needed her precious Irvy to be buy for her on her birthday."

I laughed when she pointed out to me that they were "foot pajamas too! Oh Irvy, I _need_ these!" He nodded but looked like he winced a bit when he looked at the price. Selphie continued to point out things to me flipping back and forth in the magazine.

"A bit slow today, huh Rin?" Irvine more stated than asked. I looked up for a second and smiled a bit, nodding. I turned my head down to continue looking at the magazine with Selphie when my cell phone went off in my purse. She went quiet for a second, and moved over to Irvine so they could look together some more.

"Hello?" I said pleasantly into the phone, turning away from the table so I didn't disturb them.

"Think it's safe to pay a visit?" a deep voice asked. _Typical, no hello._ I rolled my eyes and looked over to the corner where he sat with a grin.

"I don't know..." I drew out slowly, turning away from him. "She might rip your head off..."

"She being you?"

"Er-" _It was a joke Squall... _I looked over at him again and saw his eyes laughing at me. _I got you!_ they screamed. Of course, being Squall, his face didn't show it except for a small smirk that barely showed up on his face.

I tutted into the phone and leaned back. "I'll see you soon," I told him sweetly and hung up on him. He looked at his phone and flipped it closed, shoving it in his pocket. I turned back in my seat to face Irvine and Selphie glaring at me from the corner of their eyes almost as if saying, _"You're leaving us already?"_

When Squall came over, he didn't say anything. He just coughed to get their attention while they were making faces at me. Selphie's jaw dropped. Before I could say a word to Squall, or see Irvine's expression, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the bathrooms. I heard her say a few '_excuse me_'s here and there while she dragged me.

Finally she threw me through the doors and paused, solidly shutting the door and then checking the stalls to see if anyone was there. Then she turned around and grabbed my shoulders. "Are you okay!" she asked quickly.

My eyebrow rose and my mouth opened but she cut me off.

"No! - of course you aren't okay!" she gave a big huff and started ranting - although none of it made sense from her point of view. "Who does he think he is, coming into our lives like this? He must've broken up with what's her face and decided to come crawling back because no one was there for him. Oh boo hoo - _ oh ho ho, I'm Squall and I'm useless and pathetic_-"

My hand found it's way to her mouth somehow and clamped it shut. Her eyes widened and she looked as though she would go mad. "Selphie..." I started to explain. I loosened my grip a bit and slowly let her breathe. "It's okay. Squall and I--"

"What do you mean it's okay!" she burst out.

My hand flew over her mouth again and she began to struggle to get free of the grip around her lips. "What are you getting so worked up about this Selph? He's _my_ ex, not yours."

She suddenly stopped struggling. I let go again, ready to shoot my hand back if needed. "Oh yea..." she breathed out as it dawned on her. Then her nose wrinkled up and she was confused. "I thought you-"

"We worked it out already," I said, knowing exactly what she would ask. Her eyes lingered on me skeptically. I smiled, knowing again what she was thinking. "He caught me playing in the rain again the other day. I kind of invited him in since it was raining, and we ended up catching up rather than hating each other." I shrugged. "We definitely _aren't_ back together, but... we have no hard feelings."

She nodded in understanding and walked over to the door, unlocking it. I stared at it, confused for a second. _When'd she lock the door?_

"Rin? You coming, or what?"

"Huh? Yeah! Just a sec..." I glanced at the door one last time before going back to the table with her.

Apparently the fact that I used to despise Squall never registered in Irvine's mind. When we got back, he and Squall were sitting and laughing and talking casually the same way that they did when we were all together. Our orders had come already, sitting on the table between Irvine and Squall.

"My, my, have you girls prettied yourselves up nicely..." Irvine said in a western drawl. He didn't talk like that all the time, but he liked to play cowboy whenever flirting with Selphie - which was really about three-fourths of the time.

"Silly, we didn't pretty ourselves up," Selphie said, wrinkling her nose and pinching Irvine's.

I leaned over to Squall's ear. "I told you... so in love it makes me sick sometimes..." I sang softly into his ear. He chuckled and raised his eyebrows in agreement. I giggled softly with him.

"I see you two are getting along well," Irvine said, back in his normal tone of voice. He tipped his usual cowboy hat on his head. "Any chance I'll be seeing you two in a double date with us soon?"

"Not a chance," I answered in a giggle. Squall didn't answer, but he seemed to agree. _Then again... maybe-I'm not him, I wouldn't know..._ Noticing an awkward silence passing through, I quickly added unconsciously, "Besides - didn't you want me to date that other guy?"

Irvine stayed quiet for a moment to take a sip from his cup. "Selphie tells me you two aren't really getting along."

My head snapped over to Selphie, but I forced my eyes to quickly divert back to Irvine. "Umm..."

"Rin, he's a nice guy and all, but if you don't want to date him then don't. He'll understand. Squall's a good guy too you know."

"Oh... uhm..." I scratched the back of my head uneasily. "I'll just talk to Zell and-"

"Hey Rin!" _You've got to be kidding me..._

A big grin was on his face as he walked over to our table. Irvine got up and they did their manly handshake-hug thing. To my surprise, Squall got up as well, and didn't seem to need introductions.

"What th-- I mean..." I shook my head. _Think happy thoughts... not bad... not a total disaster..._ "Oh, you've met." I said sweetly. _What the hell was that?_

"Yeah, Squall and I go way back," Zell said, punching his arm. He didn't seem to notice the fake overly sweetness that was in my voice. "Partners in crime, yah?"

Squall put down his cup. "I wouldn't really say that..."

"Yeah huh! We did everything together man!"

"You followed me everywhere." This shut Zell right up. He didn't look too upset, but his pride was definitely wounded a bit. _Typical Squall... guess you haven't changed that much._

"I have to get going," Squall announced, standing up. "Thanks for letting me join you guys. It was good catching up man." He said to Irvine.

"No problem," I said softly. No one else said anything though, so he clearly heard me and smiled. He walked out the door swinging car keys pulled out of his pocket.

"I gotta get going too," Zell added. _You liar - you just don't want to sit next to me!_ My eyes narrowed. "I'll catch you guys later!" He ran over to the counter and ordered something quickly then left. Not without glancing at me everything 3 seconds of course. Once he rounded the corner, I let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding.

"Interesting day," I said.

"Really?" Irvine and Selphie asked in unison. Their eyes were wide and they were truly confused. They both thought I was crazy, I could see it in their eyes.

"Er... no. I meant interesting.. um, _afternoon._" I stressed, hoping that would make sense. They nodded along, but I could tell they only partly agreed with me.

"Squall and I split the bill already, so don't worry about it Rin," Irvine said when I fished for my wallet in my bag.

"Thanks," I smiled gratefully.

He and Selphie led us out. As we were about to separate and walk off in different directions, Irvine turned around and smiled at me. "By the way Rin," he said, tipping his hat, "Have fun tomorrow!"

He and Selphie walked off without even glancing back.

_Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?_

I walked home praying that whatever was happening tomorrow didn't have anything to do with Zell. _I still don't forgive him for everything yet._


	7. The Stars at Night

**Disclaimer:** You should know what I own and don't own. I own nothing.

**Author's Note:** I don't know if I made it clear before... but the story is in past tense. So everything that's _italicized_ and in present tense are her thoughts at the time of the event. Does that make any sense? I hope so.

Rainy Days: Chapter 6 - Starry, Starry Night

* * *

The phone rang. And rang. And rang and rang and rang. Whoever it was that was calling didn't want to give up. And whoever it was that was calling never left a message either. They simply hung up and dialed again.

The fifth time the rounds of rings began again, I groaned loudly from under the covers and pillows and rolled over in bed towards the table where my phone was. Urgh, it was 8 in the morning. Who would be calling at an hour like that? _I'm trying to sleep here!_

I stretched out my arm and picked up the phone, grunting out an unhappy "Hello?" before sinking dead back into the pile of pillows.

"I should've known you'd still be in bed," a male voice chuckled into the phone.

I shot up like a rocket when I heard his voice. _Oh my gosh!_ "Squall! Wha - I mean why - no! wait..." I twisted and turned in bed, frantically trying to find a way out of the sheets. "Oof." I finally fell out backwards and sprawled out on the floor, the phone above my head. I could hear him laughing at me over the phone. Growling, I picked up the phone and gathered myself off the floor, heading towards the bathroom. I glanced at my cell phone on my dresser. _I only remember giving him my cell phone number..._

"How'd you get my number again?" I mumbled.

"Irvine."

"Right."

There was a moment of silence as I brushed my hair. "Squall? Hate to be rude but - why'd you call me at this ungodly hour?"

He went silent for a while, and I was beginning to think that he was gone already. I was just about to hang up when he finally spoke up.

"What are you doing tonight?"

I was surprised and nearly dropped the phone. I definitely wasn't expecting this. "What?" I paused and smirked. "Well this is different. It used to be that I was the one who had to be the one who took you everywhere and get you to open up," I joked and leaned the sink counter. It was true. He was so shy before, I had to practically drag him to places that were outside of his dorm.

"Rin-" he began to argue back, but I cut him off.

"Nothing. I have a free schedule tonight. Why'd you ask?"

"I'll pick you up at seven."

"You still haven't answered me why though, Squall."

He was silent again after I said it.

"Squall, we already tried the whole dating thing. It didn't work, remember? There's a reason we aren't dating anymore. You're lucky I began talking to you again. Don't go all silent mode on me now."

He still didn't speak. I could tell he hadn't hung up yet though, because I heard him sigh, and could hear his breathing on the other end of the line. "If you don't say anything in the next five seconds-"

"Wait Rin," he finally said. I smiled. _Works every time..._ "It's... it's a surprise."

"I told you, we already tried da-"

"Not a date," he said firmly. "Just... a surprise."

I fiddle with the things on the counter for a little bit in deep thought. "Alright," I answered with a sigh. If I knew anyone who was honest to a fault, it was Squall. "Tonight at seven."

* * *

Squall is always precise, true to his words; and as long as it's under his control, it will go exactly as planned. At exactly seven o'clock that night, my doorbell rang.

"Right on time," I told him, smiling sweetly and closing the door behind me.

He glanced at me for a second, and shrugged himself. He led me to his car where he opened the door for me before he got in himself, and treated me to a quick burger-and-fries dinner.

"Not a date, huh?" I asked him, getting into his car a second time. He shut the door for me smirking, and got into his own door. He shook his head and started the car.

"Not a date. If you call fast food a proper date, you're crazy."

"It happens," I shrugged. I had a guy take me to Burger King every single time we went out. "And the opening of doors for me?"

"Manners," he said simply, keeping his eyes on the road.

I stared out my window. For how long though, I have no idea. Soon after that quick little chat, my eyes began to droop. Whoever said when your stomach is full of food you fall asleep easily is right. When I woke up, we were no longer in the middle of a city. We somehow ended up in a forest.

Squall had shaken me awake and was now doing something outside. He told me to just wait outside until he got back to get me. I was still a little drowsy though. _Why am I in a forest?_

I slowly got out of the car and stretched out, hoping it would wake me up. By then, whatever it was Squall was doing should've been done. There was a rustle in the bushes nearby. Squall was still far away though, he couldn't have heard it. I got myself read in case it attacked, but it seemed to be gone. A hand touched my arm and I leaped in surprise, but it turned out only to be Squall, getting me.

As I tried to calm myself and slow down my breathing, he took a handkerchief out of his pocket.

"I need to blindfold you."

My eyes widened. "What? Why?" _It's nighttime in the middle of a forest. It's already dark, what would I see!_

A half smile played on his face. "I need to blindfold you..." he said holding up the handkerchief, "or else it won't be a surprise."

"Umm..." I looked at it weakly and bit my lip. Still feeling uneasy I let him blindfold me, but clutched his right arm tightly with my left hand.

"Don't worry..." he said. "I'm not throwing you off a cliff." I knew he meant that only as a harmless joke, but I clutched his arm tighter, suddenly feeling extremely nauseous.

When he pulled off the blindfold, I nearly screamed. I was standing in front of a cliff! It dropped at least fifty feet straight down just five steps ahead of me. Both of my arms flew around his torso in fright. He laughed at me when I did this, and tried to pry my digging nails off his body.

"Look past the cliffs and trees," he whispered softly into my ear. My eyes had shut themselves tightly when I my arms went around him, and I had pulled my head close to his body. I loosened my grip and slowly opened my eyes.

"Wow..." I breathed out. From the cliff, you had an aerial-like view of the city. I could see the bright neon lights of the stores twinkling back at me like little stars.

"Now look up," he whispered again. His arms somehow found their way around me, but I felt comforted like before. It didn't bother me in the slightest bit.

I smiled and tilted by head up, and laughed knowing that I was enjoying myself. _What are you planning Squall?_

The wow I had earlier couldn't even describe the sight that was above me. If he hadn't been holding on to me, I might've just twirled off the cliffs. I wanted to spin around and look up from every possible angle. Millions of shining lights stared down from me. They weren't like the city lights at all. Artificial lights only gave so much delight; the stars were exactly like the song. _Like diamonds in the sky..._

"Oh, they're so beautiful..." I whispered, my eyes not diverting from the night sky. "Thank you for taking me here." I hugged him tightly, not caring at all that I used to be mad at him and avoided him.

"Did you think this was it?" he asked me. I looked up at him confused. What did he mean? This was awesome! _What more is there? _He pointed inland a bit more, further from the cliffs where he had a telescope set up with some blankets and books.

I gasped. This was so exciting! I never took astronomy, however much it interested me. When we sat down, he shrugged. "It's an assignment I have to do. Just thought you might want to help me. I remembered how much you liked the stars, so..."

I grinned and nodded. I rubbed my arms a bit. I was beginning to be cold. But Squall was prepared for that. He wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and had me sit down beside him on another blanket that he had laid out beside the telescope for us to sit on. He took out the books and began to give directions while I watched attentively. He showed me pictures in the book, and then showed me in the sky. He then pointed out the ones he still needed to find and had me help him. I either found them for him or wrote down what he saw.

It was probably around 8 or 9 when we drove up into that forest. While we were up there we seemed to have lost track of time. I took a short break and sat watching him, and ending up falling asleep again on his shoulder. He shook me awake and took me home. I swore I could last a bit longer, but he insisted he take me home, and that it was around midnight anyway.

Before leaving the mountains we caught a shooting star as it flew across the sky.

I giggled and pointed up at it. "Just like our first kiss, remember?" I smiled at him and he smiled back. _I don't hate him anymore._ My old feelings were coming back though, and I wanted him to kiss me right then and there. He came closer to me and put his arm around me, but the kiss never came. He lead me to his car instead, and let me sit and wait inside where it was warm as he packed up his telescope, books and blankets.

I was disappointed and upset. Not at him, of course, but at myself for having feelings for him again. _What was I thinking?_ I rested my head in my hands and took a deep breath. He got into the car right then.

"Tired much?" he asked. I lifted my head and shook it.

"No, not really." He looked doubtful, but went along with it anyway. Luckily, this time I didn't fall asleep in the car.

It was near 1 or 2 when we got back to my apartment. He was kind enough to walk me to the door, claiming he didn't want any crazy guys jumping out from corners and raping me in my own apartment. I laughed at him and hit him in the chest, telling him he was over-exaggerating, but let him walk me to the door anyway. The walk just to the door took forever though, because we kept playing and flirting with each other. He learned to open up more thanks to me, and I guess along the way he learned to be a bit more playful as well. I was picked up and swung around 3 times in the parking lot alone; and Squall actually laughed - hard - that night.

It didn't feel like we were ex-boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. There was no tension or bad feelings between us, and my bad memory stopped coming up in my mind. In fact, it was almost like we were dating again. There were no more kisses though, just friendly gestures like pats and half hugs with only one arm. _We're not dating anymore._ My mood always dropped a bit when this fact of reality hit me.

When we finally got to my door, he told me to take care. "I'll call you and let you know if you aced it," he joked with a twinkle in his eye. I laughed and nodded in agreement.

"I hope I did well for my first time," I told him.

He smiled back at me. "Don't get sick, alright Rin?" There was no disgusting goodnight kiss like a few nights before with Zell; just that goodnight grin and wave. Though I wanted that kiss with Squall, the smile was enough for me.

When I got inside I leaned against the door. _I miss you Squall, I really do. I just never knew it 'til now._ Irvine's words came floating back to me from yesterday. _Have fun tomorrow Rin! _I smiled at the thought. _I did Irvine... hope you're satisfied. _I sat there for a few minutes just thinking about what happened that night. I needed to get to bed though, so I moved and got changed and headed towards bed, ignoring the flashing light saying that I had messages for the starry lights outside that had left me speechless earlier that night.

**

* * *

** **Ending Author's Note:** I'm trying to make the chapters longer, but they always turn out shorter than I think they'll be. This entire chapter was Squall/Rinoa based. I'll try to add in more Seifer/Quistis and Irvine/Selphie action later, and... something else with Zell. Reviews help much! v 


	8. The Murder Mystery Without the Murder

**Disclaimer:** Standard things apply... I don't own crap... just the story line... and all that jazz.

**Author's Note: **So I'm just plain _horrible_ when it comes to writing. I have this great idea and storyline in my head... but I can't write without getting inspired or getting in the mood or whatever. And basically everything that's filled up my mind for the past... oh... 2 or 3 months has been school. Unfortunately. Don't mess with perfectionists like me, we spend hours on small projects that don't even matter and freak out over an A-. Hah... ;; So yeah... but it's summer vacation now. I have more free time, so hopefully I'll get into the mood or something for writing. I apologize for updating late for anyone who cares/reads the story. ) I also apologize for how slow this story is moving along... not only am I horrible at updating, but the plot isn't thickening much. It will though, I promise!

Rainy Days - Chapter 7 - A Murder Mystery Adventure (But Without the Murder)

* * *

"Wait... hold on - _WHAT_?" Selphie slammed her hand down on the table, shaking it hard and almost tipping over Quistis's tea.

"Rinoa, that doesn't seem... I don't know... _realistic_ at all," Quistis added in, grabbing her cup and stirring it while eying Selphie. "A stalker? It's not like we're famous or something..."

"I know..." I sighed and laid my head on the table. "But I swear that's what it sounded like!"

The three of us suddenly became silent for a while, deep in thought. It was just the three of us, the three females that always grouped together. I called them both up this morning, and told them to meet up with me after all of our classes. It was personal though, I added, and asked them not to bring along Seifer or Irvine with them. Selphie was excited at first, for Irvine had filled her in already on the surprise that Squall had set up for me. However, after getting to the cafe and hearing my story, she was no longer full of excitement.

That morning before I had called them I finally checked my messages. I was perfectly happy until the last message played. There wasn't really anything important said in the message - or really, anything said at all. That's what spooked me. The entire message was just breathing, with an occasional mumble. The mumbles were always scary... things like_ "I see you princess..."_ or _"I'll get you princess..." _It played for a full minute before it ended - and when it did end, they finally spoke.

_"Hey man! What're you doing? You're taking forever - gimme back my phone!"_

_"Shit! ... what the hell!"_

And the caller hung up. One of the men was the blonde guy that I just went a blind date with a few weeks ago. That much I knew... but didn't tell Selphie and Quistis yet. It wasn't very smart, but that probably would've freaked them out more - so I just told them I had a stalker who left me a message. Which was almost true in a way... _Zell_ was the one who was set up with me on my blind date. He was also there at my apartment, as I walked Squall out. He was so upset then... there was also that night...with Squall. The bush moving... but then again. Maybe not. But it still didn't make any sense... and Zell._ ...what was he doing in that message then? _My mind finally clicked on something and I straightened up.

"I think..." I breathed out. And then sighed and rubbed my eyes. "I don't know..."

"What? You think... what?" Quistis asked, her wise eyes questioning me. "Rin... we aren't getting anywhere. If someone has any ideas about the creepy caller - Hyne, just let it out! We've been sitting here _thinking_ for half an hour! I don't even know what we're thinking _about! _I told Seifer I'd meet him at the book store in 20 minutes - are we done yet or what?"

"Gee... you're extra supportive, aren't you Quistis?" Selphie sarcastically shot back. "Rinny needs our help! So let's help her! All you think about is books... think of it as we're in a big murder mystery! But without the murder... I think." She stuck out her tongue to prove a point - or maybe because it was the Selphie-like thing to do at the time.

Quistis just stared at her for a second though and blinked hard. Then she turned back to me. "Alright then - what did you think?"

"Well..." I told them about the entire call, fidgeting a bit in my seat, twisting my a napkin and my hair, and moving the cup around on the table. I added every thought I had, and filled them in on what happened both the night of the blind date, and last night with Squall. "... I honestly can't figure how to tie this all together. But I honestly think that Zell's involved in this completely, if not at least mostly. If it is anyone else, I can't figure out _who_ it is then, and _why_. But then again..."

Quistis held up her hand to stop me from rambling any longer. "I think I get it now..."

Selphie nodded. They locked eyes and seemed to talk through them before turning back to me.

"You said he threw a jealous rage when he saw Squall, right?" Selphie started.

"Sure..." I didn't quite call it a jealous rage, but... I guess you could call it that.

"And he made a move on you a few nights before that, right?" Quistis continued.

"Yes..." I said slowly. _Okay... this all clicked for me already._

"Does that seem stalker-ish to you at all Rin?"

"Yah huh! Stalker alert!" They were both leaned into the table now, towards me.

"Well yeah! Obviously!" I threw my hands up. "I already figured that out! But..." they leaned even closer to me. "That guy on the phone... it wasn't Zell."

"What!" Selphie fell over off her chair.

Quistis sat up and glared at me like I was a lunatic. She looked around at the store, smiling sheepishly at all the people who turned their attention towards us when Selphie fell. She lowered her voice and sternly said, "But you just said one of the guys on the phone--"

"Yeah, _one_ of them!" I said, cutting her off. I lowered my voice as well, and Selphie finally got back up on her chair. We all leaned into the table so that we could talk quietly, and all the people would divert their attention back to whatever they were doing. "The guy on the phone... the creepy guy... I don't know who he was. All I know is that he scares the hell out of me. Zell was the guy who asked for his cell phone back." They began to relax a bit, getting back their thoughtful looks that we had at the beginning our 'session.' I leaned back and let them think.

"What does that mean then?" Quistis asked. "How is Zell involved in this then, if he isn't the stalker?"

"That's just it. I don't know."

* * *

We dropped Quistis off at the book store and went separate directions after that, continuing to think on our own. A whole week passed, and none of us came up with anything. I never got a call like that ever again though, and it began to think it was all a joke one of Zell's friends pulled by stealing his cell phone. When I consulted Quistis, she seemed to agree and we let it go.

Things seemed to be back to normal. And with Squall around, we seemed to have a lot more fun - just like the good times we had in high school.

A couple more weeks went by, and nothing else seemed to happen. The six of us showed up at the cafe on a bi-weekly basis together in the afternoon when our classes all ended. Strangely enough, they all ended within ten minutes of each other so we always showed up around the same time; and if not, then we showed up within the half hour.

On one of the those afternoon gathering of ours, the normalcy pattern seemed to shift a bit.

I walked to our table and dropped my book bag in a chair next to Selphie, letting out a heavy breath. "I swear that bag gets heavier every day..."

"You say that every week," she laughed. "And your bag hasn't ripped yet. I think you're just imagining it."

Irvine came up behind me and set down a large platter of our usual order. His arm snuck around my waist and turned me around.

"Here you are darling..." he set down the platter just in front of Selphie. "I need to borrow Rin for a second, I'll bring her back in one piece - I promise!"

Selphie laughed and waved her hand, saying a quick, "Thanks Irvy!" and went back to her book of calculus and physics. While Irvine dragged me out the door, I snapped my head back to our table. _Calculus? Selphie? No way!_

He got me out of the door somehow and snapped his fingers in front of my eyes a couple times to get my attention. I looked back at him surprisingly and cut him off before he could speak.

"Since when does Selphie know math?" I blurted out. I winced inwardly. _That was a stupid way of putting it..._

Irvine laughed. "It's not hers. I think it's Quistis's. Not sure though... she borrowed it to for her project or something... to weigh down her book of flat dried flowers I think? Something arts and crafts-y. You know how much she hates math."

I nodded. He shrugged and leaned against the wall. "That's not why I brought you out here though."

"I know..." I casually looked up at him. "You know... you're a great guy and all Irvine, but you belong to Selphie. I love ya honey, but it just ain't gonna work out."

We both burst out laughing and bent over trying to calm ourselves. "That's not it either Rin... although it sounds quite tempting."

I bit my lip and punched his arm playfully. "Then tell me what it is." I crossed my arms and waited patiently for him to speak.

It took him a little time to calm down, and a bit more to think about what to say. "I ran into Zell," he finally said. I raised my eyebrows.

"Really? What'd he say?" Selphie and I filled him in about the Zell incident long ago, a few days after we dismissed the thought of him being a stalker. I hadn't talked to him since though really...

Irvine shrugged. "He did ask about you if that's what you're wondering. He told me to tell you sorry - and that he'd like to talk to you again. But just as friends. He also added in that you don't have to worry about him making a move on you. He's got a new girl now - some brunette who's really shy. Never met her though."

"That's it?"

"In a nutshell, yeah," he stood up straight, no longer leaning on the wall anymore. "Our conversation wasn't entirely about you, you know. Just thought I'd fill you in though..."

I smiled and followed him back into the cafe. "Yeah... thanks anyway." _Even though it wasn't really all that important..._

An arm snuck up behind me again, and pulled me back out. I huffed and turned around. "Squall!"

He smiled shyly and scrunched up his nose. "What? I wanted to tell you some good news."

I pressed my lips together to pout, as if saying _'I don't appreciate being grabbed'_ and scrunched my nose as he began laughing at me. I stuck out my tongue for an after effect too, but he didn't seem too fazed by it. He just kept a smile on his face. He didn't even say anything, he just stood there smiling at me.

"What?" I asked shyly, suddenly becoming self-conscious. I stepped away from him and stuffed my hands into my jean pockets. I smiled back and tried to break the weird mood that suddenly overcame us. "What was the good news you wanted to tell me?"

That seemed to snap him out of it. He nodded, but kept smiling. "Right. You passed," he said brightly.

"Huh?" The shy look I had earlier disappeared and a confused one replaced it. "Passed what?"

"Astronomy project. Finally got our grades back. Nice work," He smiled and walked past me, grabbing my shoulders and leading me back with him. My mouth was in a lovely 'o' shape as it dawned on my what he was talking about. _But I think I was hoping that it was something else..._

When we got back the platter was already taken away and everyone sat in their usual spots. Our drinks were even set to the spots Squall and I usually sat. I giggled to myself. _Trust Selphie to do that..._ Selphie was leaning against Irvine, who was stroking her hair. Quistis and Seifer sat opposite of each other, not looking like a couple in any way - Quistis was absorbed in her book or planner, and Seifer was just sitting and looking completely bored. Two seats were left right next to each other. _Mine and Squall's usual spots, as always..._

"Ah! Finally!" Selphie jumped up and folded one of her legs under her. "Sit, sit! We have something to tell you!"

I chuckled and sat down quickly, Squall following my suit. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Seifer roll his eyes and mumble something, then wince when Quistis kicked him under the table from next to me. She eyed him threateningly. It shut him right up. Squall and I both took a sip out of our drinks as she began talking.

"It's going to be so much fun!" she said excitedly, clapping her hands. "Quistis and Seifer are inviting us to their beach house for the week!"

"What do you mean _our_ beach house?" Seifer butted in. "_My_ beach house. It was _supposed _to be _only_ Quistis and me--"

"But it's alright. It'll be fun. All of you guys are invited," Quistis finished. She glared at him along the tops of her glasses. "Right?"

He glared back and sulked, but didn't say anything else.

_Typical Seifer..._ I thought. _It's a wonder that Quistis can control him so well..._

"We're meeting up at Quistis's place Sunday morning. Do you want to come along? You too Squall! We'll all cram into a van or something and drive down there," Selphie added. "We'll stay the entire week!"

I nodded. "Sounds awesome! I'll definitely be there," I said, taking another sip out of my glass. "What about you, Squall?"

"Sure, why not?" he shrugged. "Don't think I have anything else to do during the break."

Selphie and I smiled widely upon his reply and she even hopped a bit in her seat. She hugged Irvine and mumbled to him, "It's going to be so much fun!" and continued laughing.

I turned back to both Selphie and Quistis smiling. "So what should I pack?"

* * *

"I think that's the last of it," Squall huffed, closing the trunk of the van. "You do know that we're just staying there for a week, right? You packed like we were moving or something..."

I smiled sarcastically and stuck out my tongue. "Funny..."

I turned around as everyone else joined us and we planned the seating in the van. Behind me I could hear him following me and mumbling, "Well I thought so..."

I chuckled one last time punched his arm laughing. We climbed into the van after a short tickling match. Irvine got into the drivers seat with Seifer next to him, acting as a navigator. Selphie and Quistis sat just behind them, and Squall and I sat in the very back.

"I still think I should be the one driving..." Seifer mumbled.

"Yeah, stuff it..." Quistis retorted from the seat behind him, adjusting her hair. "We both know you'd get us all killed."

Irvine rolled his eyes and pulled out of the driveway while they began their argument. It lasted a good 10 minutes into the drive there. Behind them, Squall and I continued our tickling match from outside, now seeing how often we could poke each other between laughs. Although clearly I was winning.


	9. The Vacation

**A/N: **I apologize for how late this chapter is! I meant to get it in by the 6th, but I just couldn't get it done in time. And then on the morning of the 7th I had to leave for a trip, and just got back on the 21st. I'll try to make more frequent updates, but... I don't know. We'll see how it goes. I had a blast though! And was able to get some ideas for the next chapter - it'll be up soon! I hope. Haha... anyway, thank you everyone who reads this story, even though I'm not very dependable at all as a writer/updater. Thanks to everyone who reviewed as well! They've totally boosted my interest in writing this story. Of the reviews I got, there was really only 1 I had to answer, so...

**Lil Doro:** Aww... I'm glad you like it! I **love**_ your_ story as well. Too bad it's ending so soon. I can just tell as all the loose ends are tying up now. ( I can't really say anything about Zell... just that he'll drop by here and there as the story develops. But he's not that major... or maybe he will be? I don't know... I'm writing and plotting and all that good stuff as I go along right now (to tell you the truth - I don't even know how the story's going to end yet!). If you want to know a secret (or rather... _another_ secret), the title of each chapter I make up at the end of writing. Haha... I never know what's going on in my stories. Don't ask me what happens next. I don't know! ;; We'll just have to see what happens. :)

Rainy Days - Chapter 8 - So Much For Paradise... 

* * *

The trip there took basically the entire day. We left that morning probably around 8, and arrived at the place at at least 5 that evening. We stopped at only a few places - once or twice to get gas, and once more to eat lunch. When we got there our limbs and joints (not not to mention butts) were sore from sitting for so long. Although upon seeing the house that we were going to be living in for a week, I began to think it was worth the trip.

"Seifer! I thought you said beach _house_!" Selphie exclaimed.

"This _is_ my beach house," he replied as if it was stupid to think that he lived anywhere else. "You people look like you've never seen a house before."

Irvine whistled as he took out the keys and climbed out of the car. "Little cowgirl's right there man... this place ain't a house. It's like a _mansion_!"

"We definitely need to move all of you out of the city and into houses... apartments have brainwashed you all," Seifer mumbled shaking his head. "It's not _that_ big."

"It's a beach front hotel!"

"It is not!"

The click of the trunk lock broke the tension quickly. Seifer turned his head to the car where Squall was beginning to unload.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to get in there and sleep," he said. Everyone murmured in agreement and quickly shook their heads and grabbed their own bags. Irvine tossed Squall the keys and followed Seifer up to the door.

"Need some help?" I asked him, holding on to my own bag.

He smiled at me, holding on to two bags in one hand and turning the key in the other. "I got it; don't worry."

He bent down and grabbed another bag (I blushed in shame when I realized that of the 3 bags he was carrying, 2 of them were mine, and I was holding another one of my own as well) and followed everyone else to the door.

The inside was beautiful as well, with a high ceiling and lightly polished wooden floors. The kitchen was wide, and so was the living room, and the walls were all windows. A staircase along the side led upstairs, where there were 4 doors.

"You so lied," I said softly. "It's totally a mansion."

Seifer rolled his eyes and threw the keys in his hand on to a small table against the wall. He then led us upstairs and pointed out each room.

"Guest room," he said, pointing to the first door. "Guys can sleep there. This one's the bathroom, and other guest room for the girls to sleep in." He knocked on each door as he listed them, causing them to swing open.

"Last one's master bedroom - mine. And Quisty's," a small "oof" escaped his lips as Quistis suddenly slapped his back. Whatever happened after that, none of us knew. We were already in the bedrooms that were appointed to us.

"Alright! Bouncy beds!" Selphie cheered as she bounced up and down on her bed. I laughed and fell on to another one on the other side of the room.

"Mmm... they're definitely comfy," I said, wrapping the blankets around me. A knock came at the door and I dropped them. We both stood up and walked over to our bags as though we were hiding something. It turned out to be just Quistis though.

"Don't think I can stay with you guys in here..." she said softly.

"What?" Selphie exclaimed. "Don't like that big bully Seifer bully you into anything! You can stay with us if you want! I like sleeping on the floor!"

"No no!" Quistis put her hands out. "I'm okay... really. I... um, kind of ... want to..."

She was looking down at her feet and her cheeks were a light shade of pink. I laughed and suddenly understood.

"It's fine Quisty. Don't be naughty at night now!" I shook my finger while laughing.

Her head shot up and her eyes were wide like saucers - I fell over laughing when I saw her face. She blushed even harder and quickly turned around and left the room. Selphie and I continued laughing, but then she walked back in again.

"Oh, by the way - we're cooking for the boys tonight."

I froze. "Me? Cooking? Are you serious?" _I burn pop tarts!_

"Yeah, unfortunately..." she didn't sound very excited either. She handed me a list. "Here's stuff to buy. Can you and Irvine run down to the grocery and buy it for us, Rin?"

"What? Why me?"

"It's not likely you'll help us _that_ much in cooking," Quistis said. "Selphie'll probably help more. You can just do your share by buying the stuff for us. Irvine's waiting downstairs."

I grumbled and trudged myself down the stairs. "Fine..."

* * *

"Who knew picking out vegetables was so difficult?" Irvine asked, holding up two cucumbers. "What's the difference?"

"This one's better," I grabbed the one in his right hand, put it in the bag I was holding with 2 other cucumbers, placed it in the cart and moved on. I could see him drop his mouth slightly out of the corner of my eye before scowling and following me.

"Still don't get it..." he jingled.

"I don't care..." I replied back in the same manner. I grabbed a bag of celery and put it in the cart. "What else is on the list Irvine?"

"Tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, five billion more things, blah blah blah... congratulations Rin, you've finished the vegetables!"

"Oh hurrah..." I rolled my eyes and snatched the list out of his hand. He yelped and nearly dived at me, but I stepped back and he missed. He crossed his arm and followed me as I pulled the cart along to other parts of the super market. "We got the meat... we got the vegetables... we got the fruits... god, trust Quistis to be this organized. Who sorts their grocery list?"

"Quisty apparently."

"Yeah, no kidding..." I flipped through it final time. "Hey, you want some cake? I'm feeling something sweet tonight."

He smiled and nodded along. "That's my girl!"

I punched his arm and clicked my tongue, and had him push the cart after me as I walked into the bakery section. "What do you think we should get? It should be something all of us like... there's 6 of us after all..." I said to myself. I didn't really give him time to reply and just kept talking to myself. "Selphie loves everything sweet, so cakes with that much frosting would totally make her happy. But Quistis hates ultra sweet cakes... Squall and Seifer are exactly alike..." I laughed, and kept walking along. "They don't like all that frosting like Selphie, but I think they like things that are swee-- oh! Sorry-"

I bumped into someone and looked up apologizing with a sheepish smile. The smile dropped though when I saw who it was. "Oh you've got to be kidding me..." I breathed softly.

He smiled shyly at me. "Hey Rin."

I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath. _Zell, Zell, Zell... what the **hell** are you doing here?_

"Hey Rin, how about this cake?" Irvine asked, trying to break the ice. "Fits everyone nicely, yeah?"

"Sure..." I mumbled, my face still in my hands. "Let's go. They're waiting for us, aren't they? Us girls still need to cook."

I walked off and Irvine followed after a few quick words with Zell. I stopped and waited for him a good couple feet away.

"You're overreacting Rin," Irvine murmured as he brushed past me. He walked to the check out lines. I looked behind me and noticed for the first time a girl by Zell's side.

_He's got a new girl now - some brunette who's really shy. Never met her though. _Irvine's voice echoed in my ear.

The girl pointed to a cake with cartoon characters on it and laughed. Zell laughed along and picked up another cake near it and they walked on.

_Oops... Irvine was right. Nice move there Rin..._

"Rin! You coming or what?" Irvine called from the line. The cashier was already ringing up our stuff. I shook my head and ran up to him.

"Yeah, I'm coming! Sorry..." I said, and took one last look back at them.

* * *

Cooking was not one of my fortes. But they insisted I help out a little anyway, and taught me how to _not_ burn the eggs when frying it.

Selphie went out and set the table when we first started out, while Quistis attempted to get me to knead bread correctly. We ended up with flour all over ourselves.

"Rin, knead harder. It won't blend correctly or taste right if you just poke at it," she instructed, sprinkling a little bit more flour on my dough.

I sighed and bent over. "Arghhh... why is it so hard to cook! Thank Hyne for take out and fast food," I whined, thinking of the many times in my dorm I had Chinese take out and a soda.

She smiled and tried to comfort me. But Seifer just had to walk in and grab something out of the fridge. I glared at him the entire time.

"Well, you girls look gorgeous," he joked. He walked over and kissed a frowning Quistis's forehead. She leaned her head on his shoulder though (her way of a hug I assumed, since our hands were all covered in flour) and dropped her mean act. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. She faked a wince and slapped his chest with the back of her hand.

"Get out of here!" she said with a laugh, trying to be forceful at the same time. "Go drink beers or whatever you guys do! You can't see the food or the girls until we finish."

He held his arms out wide like asking _"What'd I do!"_ and smiled widely. "Have fun teaching Rin to cook then," he laughed, and flew out the door.

I stared at him in shock. "Meanie!" I screamed after him, my cheeks turning a slight pink color. Quistis and I both burst out laughing after this, getting even more flour on ourselves.

"Well, you two have a healthy relationship," I mused, dusting the flour off my arms and shoulders. She just shrugged.

"If you call tormenting each other all the time a relationship, sure."

I raised my eyebrow. _Don't think I didn't see that sweet little forehead kiss Quisty..._ She sighed and snapped out of what seemed like a short day dream. It was probably long in Quistis's world though.

"Okay, we need to hurry up and finish," she quickly recomposed herself. "We need more than just bread for dinner. And the bread still needs to rise."

I nodded and worked harder. When we put the bread away and brought out the vegetables to cut up, Selphie came back in and took charge of those. Quistis worked on the meats. They stuck me on washing the fruits since it was the "safest thing for me to do." The most dangerous thing was cutting up the huge watermelon, but I got that accomplished and was pretty damn proud of myself.

* * *

Dinner went by smoothly that night. The occasional 'let's-pick-on-Rinoa's-cooking' moments came up here and there as expected, but who could blame them? Seifer constantly pretended to be cautious of everything, asking Quistis who made the dish every time he picked up the spoon.

"Rin didn't make this, did she?" he'd ask. "It's not poisonous, is it?"

That always resulted with a slap on the arm from Quistis and a kick under the table from me. By the end of dinner, I was sure I gave him at least 3 bruises on his left shin.

"Serves you right," I said with a smirk. "Don't insult a woman."

I stuck out my tongue as he put his coat on. Irvine and Selphie were no where to be found - I think they were somewhere on the beach, but we never really found out (they came back safely that night; that was all that mattered). Seifer and Quistis were heading into town to grab a couple needed supplies - breakfast for the next morning, food supplies for the week, toilet articles, the works. Whatever else we needed to survive the next week at the house.

Quistis came up behind me and put on her shoes. "Don't forget to take that extra key with you if you guys leave," she said. "It's on the hook in the kitchen."

I nodded. "I know."

"And don't forget to-"

"Quisty, you're going to be gone for... what? Half an hour? An hour? And you're grocery shopping. What are you worried about?" I asked her with a laugh. She was a bit ridiculous and fussy at times.

She clicked her tongue and pretended to hit me with her purse. "I'm just making sure this beautiful house stays safe," she said with a grin. I nodded and snorted sarcastically, and closed the door as they left.

"Just the two of us," Squall sighed behind me. "Left to clean up the house."

He walked back into the kitchen with me only a couple steps behind him. "Awww... does Squally not know how to wash the dishes?" I teased.

He pouted in his own little way and pretended to be shot. I threw a towel in his face with a giggle. "Don't try the puppy look on me. It doesn't work - I invented it!"

He let out and slight grumble and began wiping up the table as I did the dishes. We finished within 20 minutes though, and still had plenty of time.

"Now what?" I asked as we sat by the kitchen counter. We looked around. There wasn't anything left to do... the house was already clean (typical Seifer - he may not be considerate at times, but he was a neat freak. That was one of the few things he and Quistis always had in common besides being smart blondes). We already unpacked, ate... Squall already took his nap.

Squall leaned his head forward and on to the counter in thought. "We could walk out to the beach..."

"But it's dark..." I whined. The beach was too romantic for two friends alone._ Way_ too romantic. "Let's watch TV."

I hopped up and walked to the couch instead, aiming my hand for the remote. I missed though, and lost my balance a bit, falling (not so) gracefully towards the couches. Squall grabbed my arm and pulled me up just in time though.

"Aww... my knight," I smirked. He followed the suit and snatched the remote out of my hands. "Hey!"

"I'm bigger, I win," he laughed on the couch. He turned in the TV and flipped through the channels. He paused for a minute, so I dived and took my chance! We tumbled around on the sofa, fighting over the remote for a couple of seconds before we heard the door slam and Selphie screeching. We both got up and ran to the door wondering what was wrong. When we got there, we saw Irvine and Selphie twisting this clothes that were drenched. Squall hurried up the stairs to get them something to clean themselves up with.

"What happened?" I asked them. It looked almost like they were playing in the water without their swim suits, but they didn't appear very happy.

"It's pouring out there!" Selphie whined. "We were having fun too, weren't we Irvy?"

He let out a small "Hnn.." in agreement, but was trying to shake the sand off his hat.

"I know you love the rain though, Rin," Selphie said to me. "It's not cold out - you might as well go enjoy yourself. Just don't go near the beach sand."

I peered out the window in thought. _Maybe I will..._

Squall handed each Irvine and Selphie a towel to wipe themselves off with. As they finished up, I began putting my shoes on.

"I'm going to take a shower..." Selphie yawned out, slowly making her way up the stairs.

"'Kay... got it..." I mumbled, standing up straight.

"I'm going to bed..." Irvine followed.

"Night then!" I waved, and turned out the door.

"Hey... where're you going?" Squall called after me.

"Out. Don't worry - I'll be fine," I said, turning around as the rain water washed over me. I laughed and twirled around. "It's not like I'm going very far."

I saw him hesitate in the door way before following me out. I smirked, but kept twirling around, letting the drops hit me fast.

"Rin, you'll catch a cold..." he insisted.

"And so will you!" I giggled and pointed. "Go inside. Seriously. I'll be okay."

He looked at me doubtfully and didn't move. I moved around the front of the house, and he followed. I shrugged it off though, and continued having my fun. When I looked back at him, I saw a small smile on his face.

"What?" I asked, stopping my rain dance.

"Nothing," he said with a shrug. The smile was still on his face though. I titled my head and smiled back. He stared at me right in the eyes and gave me shivers in the warm rain.

I wrapped my arms around myself and walked over to him. "Come on..." I said, taking his arm. "Let's go back." I dragged him behind me as we walked back to the house. "I'm used to this kind of stuff - but you definitely aren't, mister."

He laughed at me when I scrunched up my nose. "Have I ever told you you're the most childish person I've met?"

"Yeah, often actually..." I said lightly, making him laugh again. I punched his arm and continued up the steps to the front door of the house. "Looks like Quistis and Seifer are home..."

We saw two blonde figures sitting in the front seats of a car as it pulled into the drive way behind us. Quistis came out first with an umbrella in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other.

"So much for a paradise beach hotel..." she mumbled. She looked up and called to us. "Squall! Rin! You wanna help us out?"

We ran back down the steps and grabbed as many bags as we possibly could filled with food and supplies that were to help us live out in the beach front hotel-like-house for a week. I wondered though, how much of the beach we would actually see following this rainy night?


	10. The Girls' Night In

**A/N: **Hmm... not even 5 reviews. That's a bit disappointing following several reviews... oh well though. I'm happy to have a couple - better than none. ) Thank you for reviewing! Sorry for taking so long - I got stuck halfway through writing this. xx I hate you writer's block...

Rainy Days - Chapter 9 - The Girls' Night In

* * *

"I cannot _believe_ a little person like her can hold so much energy," I mumbled to Squall. I sat on a stool with my head down against the kitchen counter as sleep began to creep its way back into my eyes. I was whining about the energetic Selphie that had just left to go down to the beach. Her bouncy mood had woken me up for my bed and pulled me down stairs to watch them leave. 

"Selphie, it's been two days..." Irvine whined. Though he could've stayed home theoretically, he just never left her side even if he wanted to. "We still have like... _four days._ Plenty of time. How 'bout later w-"

"No!" she insisted. "Irvy! This is the last good day left! Besides, the clouds are coming back tomorrow and it'll rain again." She pouted and somehow roped the cowboy into actually going with her. She also convinced me to join her down at the beach for lunch. It happened so fast - I think the person who actually caught the full of the conversation was Squall, who was wide wake.

"I don't get how you people can live at ungodly hours like this," I continued to whine to him.

"Rin, it's eight in the morning-"

"Seven fifty!" I corrected, with my head still against the counter.

"How do you get to school?" he asked.

"My classes started at nine."

He rolled his eyes. I caught the look and pushed myself up, shaking the sleep out of me. "Okay... fine... I get it..." I stuck my tongue out, followed by my hand. "Food."

He looked down and my hand and laughed, but handed me a bowl and cereal anyway. "What would you do without me, Rin?"

"I'd live," I said, and stuck out my tongue again. The cold milk hit me as I ate and my brain began functioning. "Where-"

"Sleeping," he said simply, dropping his bowl into the sink. "They didn't get much of it last night."

My head snapped up. "What?"

He didn't say anything.

"But-"

"Yeah."

"Selphie and I sleep next door to them!" I exclaimed, "How come you know and we don't?"

"You're heavy sleepers," he said, sitting down next to me.

"But Quistis would never-"

"Never what?" she asked, coming down the stairs. Seifer followed behind her rubbing sleep out of his own eyes. Squall nodded and handed her the paper for that morning. She smiled back and murmured a "Good morning."

"Uhh..." my body suddenly became stuff. I bit my lip, trying to come up with a nice way to say things. "Um... I mean... what you and Seifer... last night..."

She stared at me confused. "What's so bad about that?" she asked, walking over to the cupboards and getting out some mugs.

My eyes became wide and my mouth floated like a fish's. Seifer sat down in front of me scratching himself like the slob he was in the morning.

"I suppose it is a bit out of character for me..." Quistis mused. Her eyes fell a bit out of focus as she thought about it.

"It's not that bad," Seifer continued, looking like he'd fall asleep right there on the table. I was about to fall off my chair when he finished up the story. "Godfather movies are classic."

"What?" my voice dropped down a couple octaves. He continued to stare at me through squinting, sleepy eyes.

"I can't believe you made me watch those," Quistis said, pouring coffee into a mug.

"They were awesome," Seifer shot back, suddenly awake upon hearing Quistis shooting down his favorite movie. "You said you liked them."

I watched them continue arguing just as Squall passed the counter with a smirk on his face and turned the corner to go up the stairs.

It was a few seconds later, my brain clicked. "_SQUALL!_" I screamed, running after him.

* * *

The week flew by quickly, though we really only had about 2 days on the beach. True to her word, the clouds that Selphie spoke of came along. Though they were a day late, they still came and poured down on us midday while we were still out. We came back in soaking wet, but with smiles shining through all of our faces. 

We successfully created a sand castle (along with a moat around it) on the afternoon of first day, and Selphie and I managed to bury Irvine in the sand the day after that. On more than one occasion the boys chased us down the beach, picking us up and one by one carrying us out to the water to drop us in. That often resulted in a water fight, all of us splashing water at whoever the figure in front of us was. The two days on the beach often ended like that, followed by a beach sun set and dinner prepared by the girls.

Our three rainy days were spent inside (of course). Most of the time we sat in front of or by the TV room since it was next to the kitchen as well. We only really watched TV about half the time. The other half of the time, the TV was on the TV Guide channel, and we waited until something interesting came up. We always had a board game set up in front of the TV as well, and played in between commercials and boring hours. _Sorry_, _Monopoly_, _Candyland_, _- _you name it, we probably played it. By the end of the week the stack of games that we had gone through grew to be as tall as the big screen TV that sat by it.

The time spent inside was spent well though - the guys watched more TV than all of us girls combined. Selphie and Quistis however, took the chance to teach me to become a better cook. Most of the dishes I learned were desserts and not actual parts of meals, but I think I got the hang of cooking. I told myself that when we got back, I definitely would have to buy some pots and pans for the room.

"I think," Quistis said one day while teaching me to separate egg whites, "that we should give you cooking lessons more often."

I watched closely as the whites dropped into the bowl below it but the yolk stayed whole. "Why?"

"You're not as horrible as you think, Rin," she replied with a gleam in your eye. "When you set your mind to it anyway."

"She's right you know," Selphie said, removing a pie from the oven that was dessert for that night. "Once you got over that fear of cutting yourself, burning cookies and over cooking the meat, you picked it up pretty quickly. You'd probably be okay with a few cookbooks and a timer."

I looked at them doubtfully. "It's true!" Selphie exclaimed.

"Whatever you say..." But deep down, I was quite proud of myself.

After dinner, I always hid my portion of dessert in the fridge and snuck out while everyone else sat deep into a mystery show or laughing at a cheesy game show.

The rain didn't plan on stopping anytime during the night. It was just the right time of the year: it wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too cold either, so I didn't catch a cold, and it didn't get so dark that I would've gotten lost by stepping out of the house.

Each time I went out though, Squall always followed like a bodyguard. I never left the property; I always just danced around in the driveway out front or on the yard along the sides. But never too far or out of view of the front door. The first day out I spun around and stopped as I caught sight of the porch. Squall sat on the swing pretending to read a book, but I could tell he wasn't really. He always pretended to be doing something, but not watching me. If not, then he always hid by standing in a dark corner so I couldn't tell it was him, or watched me from the window inside. Whatever he did, I always knew he was watching over me as I danced freely. I never mentioned to him that I saw him watching me though, and he never mentioned to me that he watched. It was our little secret that never came out.

I took a deep breath and sighed, wistfully looking around. Sunday morning had finally arrived - though much sooner than any of us expected it - and the boys were loading up the van to go home.

"You know..." I said, gazing at the mansion sized home sadly, "I had a lot of fun here. I mean, even without the beach. It was the whole point of this trip to begin with, but... it was fun. Inside I mean."

"Yeah," Squall agreed from behind me. He and Seifer jumped out of the van as they finished loading. "Yeah, it was."

A breeze blew by, causing me to shiver and rub my arms. I laughed and scrunched up my nose. "Guess what? It's not summer anymore."

"Really? I had no idea..." he rolled his eyes and shut the trunk.

"Yup," I leaned against the car. "Back to the world of early mornings, creepy teachers and take out dinners - not that we had very many late mornings here either."

"Didn't we get rid of that saying when we graduated?" Squall asked, moving me away from the car to open the door.

"Are you kidding me? The teachers followed me up there!" I laughed. "Besides, I didn't get take out every night in high school."

"You never know..."

I climbed through the door that he opened for me, whispering a quick 'thanks!' and sat down in the very back seats. Selphie and Quistis climbed in the middle seats again after Squall sat in the back with me, and Seifer and Irvine sat in front. It was the same seating arrangement as when we came.

"Can you remember _not_ to take any unknown shortcuts this time?" Quistis sarcastically asked Seifer, who was driving. He grumbled as he started the car and backed out.

* * *

Within a few days we were back in school and our daily routines fell back into place. Our next vacations were a full month away (save the weekends where we had little or no classes). True to my world, I went back to eating take-out dinners and a soda every night (much to Quistis's dismay - _"Why'd you bother to learn to cook then?" "Because I could."_) and waking up by 8 every morning. We still met up with each other at the cafe after classes everyday, and then split up into pairs while walking home. 

After a few weeks, Selphie, Quistis and I discovered that we all had an upcoming weekend free. The boys unfortunately were not, and the weather wasn't looking up. Though it didn't rain, it was still cold and cloudy. Changing our routine a bit, they brought their belongings with them one day as we met up and came over for a girls' night in. Selphie had also gotten the pictures from our trip developed and brought them along to show us. There were dozens of them - _more_ than that even. If we knew anything about Selphie, it was that she was camera crazy.

As we flipped through the photos laughing, my phone rang. I got up and check the caller ID before picking up. The number looked like I'd seen it before, but I didn't stop to figure out why.

"Hello?" I answered, setting down the photos.

I received no reply. All I could hear was a static-y noise on the phone, and possibly heavy breathing (though I couldn't really tell over the loud static).

"Hello?" I tried again. This conversation seemed familiar some how. "Hey, who is this?"

I heard a chuckle. "A karma that hangs over your head."

"What?" But I said it too late. I heard a click from the other end signaling that the caller had already hung up. I stared at the number. _Where have I seen that before? _

The volume on my phone was turned up fairly high, so the exchange was heard by both Selphie and Quistis as well.

"Rin?" Selphie asked softly. "What was that?"

I looked over at her. "I don't know..." _That number... that voice..._

I shook my head and grabbed my address book, setting it down on an end table before sitting back down with Selphie and Quistis. They were still in deep thought about the conversation.

"Hey Selph? Can you hand me that album? I finished this one." I pointed to a small photo album with a heart on it that rested by her feet.

Our moods changed immediately after that, and we forgot about the weird phone call for the time being. Between our jokes and laughing, we had no time to think about serious things like that! Selphie took pictures of nearly every waking moment at the beach house, developed them and sorted them - by day, by location, by mood. There were enough to fill up many books - she also went out and bought several photo albums with different covers to match the ones she sorted. One with a little palm tree on it, one with dice on it... it was insane how she went crazy with little things like this. But that was Selphie for you.

There were pictures of us building the sand castle, playing _Monopoly_, cooking (or in my case, _trying_ to)... she some how even managed to get some of me dancing in the rain. One picture even captured Squall (or the back of his head rather) watching me from the porch.

"How'd you get these?" I asked, noting how professionally done they looked.

"Easy," she said, surprising me a bit. "I looked through the windows."

"Oh."

Selphie laughed as I shook my head at how obvious the answer was. I flipped the page and giggled some more.

"Aww..." I held up the album to show them both. "How cute!"

Quistis looked up and practically dived at me. "Holy crap! How'd you... _when_ did you--?"

"We were all there," Selphie shrugged, waving off her reaction. "You guys just sort of... fell asleep."

We giggled together, Quistis fighting a laughing behind her hands. She let out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"I just... can't believe you took a picture!" She laughed as she said this, taking the album from my hands.

The photo was of Quists and Seifer on the couch of at the house. We had been watching a movie on TV that ran late that night and Quistis had fallen asleep on Seifer's chest. He didn't mind of course, and put his arm around her, but soon fell asleep himself. Selphie had taken that chance to snap the picture.

She stared at it some more, and the other 3 photos on that page. She shook her head, turning the page and smiled - almost like she was getting revenge. "Speaking of love bugs..." she turned it to face us.

My eyes widened. "Oh crap... Selphie! How'd you get these pictures!"

"I don't know, ask yourself! It's you after all."

"I don't remember posing like this! ... I think," I added hesitantly, grabbing it from her. "Give me that!" I laughed and looked closer.

Squall had been chasing me down the beach at that time, and managed to chase me out into the waters. We were knee deep in the water - he was anyway - in our swim suits and laughing. He had one arm wrapped tightly around my abdomen that had lifted my entire body into the air. Selphie had followed us down there as well, because Irvine chased _her_ too. But she didn't go in the water because she had her camera with her, and took a picture of me and Squall instead.

"Argh..." I groaned and blushed, tossing the album back to them.

"Do I sense a love connection?" Quistis teased. I glared back. She scratched her head and put on a frustrated face, mocking me. "I don't know... I honestly don't know. What do you think Selph?"

Selphie just burst out laughing. Quistis joined in and I sat there rolling my eyes.

"No!" I insisted. "Are you kidding me? Me and _Squall_?"

"Happened once before..." Quistis reminded me, still trying to calm herself.

"Yeah, that was also when we found out he was a cheating bastard," I said. Selphie and Quistis immediately stopped their laughing. The glanced at each other and me worriedly. "Remind me why I forgave him again?"

Inside, I was regretting every word I was saying. But at the same time, I was beginning to think that I somehow tricked myself into something.

"Because you knew - or _thought_ I guess - that you still had a chance."

"Right..." I shook my head, denying it all. "Where do you guys get this stuff?"

"TV!" Selphie said happily, trying to cheer us up. I giggled and turned the page to find more beach pictures, but this time of Selphie and Irvine. Irvine's head poked out of the sand as Selphie sat next to him patting his head. She also had him embracing her over by the waters, them watching a sun set, and a drawing they made in the sand on the page.

"Okay, _this_ is the love connection that we were talking about earlier," I told them and showed them. We flipped through some more pages of them. Selphie and Irvine's love was definitely too mushy for the rest of us.

"Hey.. what's this?" We were at the last page of the red heart album (I finally understood why there was a heart on it - every single photo hinted at romance). There was only one photo on it, rather than 2 like on the other pages.

The two people in it were a shy brunette and a tall blonde. The blonde had a tattoo along the side of his face and his thumbs up. _Zell?_

"Huh?" Selphie moved it to get a closer look. "Oh yeah! Irvy and I ran into them at the grocery store that one morning."

"Thanks, Selph. That really helped a lot," I sarcastically told her. "I mean, I totally couldn't tell you were in a grocery store by all the vegetables behind them and the cart saying _Paul's Grocery_."

She laughed and continued. "That's Zell's new girlfriend. She's really shy about everything, but she was really nice!"

"Really?" I asked. I didn't really talk to her that one day we met.

"Guess he's over you," Quistis said, pointing. "Look how cute they are together!"

I nodded as something came up in my mind. I began getting up as Selphie told Quistis about her.

"They _are_ really cute Quisty! He always holds her hand like he's afraid she's going to run away or something, but she said-Rin? Where are you going?"

I walked out of my room and into the kitchen where I thought I set my address book. _Where'd it go?_

I walked all around the apartment, looking for it. "Rin? Rinny, what're you looking for?"

"My address book." I said, distracted, walking right past them to keep looking. I could see them glancing at each other puzzled. "I... I just thought of something."

Brushing past them again, I walked back into my bedroom. "Ah-ha! Got it!" I walked back out, almost crashing into them again.

"Rin, what's going on?"

I sat down next to my phone and flipped through the address book and caller ID machine at the same time. "Zell... Zell... Zell... found him! Zell!"

"What does Zell have to do wit-oh my gosh." Quists made the connection immediately.

"What?" Selphie asked Quists. She looked over to me. "What's going on?"

"It's the same number," I said, looking between the book and the number on the phone. "It's Zell's cell phone for sure."

Selphie finally grasped it. "Stalker dude!"

I giggled half heartedly. "Yeah. But..."

"But what?" Quistis asked. "We know who called you now..."

"No, we already knew that," I said sadly. "This only proves it. Remember? I told you guys that I heard him on the phone, but that was only because it was _his_ cell phone. The caller wasn't him."

"Then who is it?"

I threw my hands up in the air. "I don't know!" We all sat in deep thought and silence. _I don't get it... how does Zell tie into this?_

The phone rang, causing all three of us to jump and give a little shriek. I laughed at myself and placed a hand over my beating heart.

"Wow. We really need to stop having these serious talks." We all laughed as I picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"So how's the girls' night in party?" A deep voice flirted into the phone. "You want to turn it into an even better party?"

"Irvine! Sick!" I yelled into the phone and got up to walk around the room a bit.

"Irvy's on the phone?" Selphie asked excitedly.

"Yup," I held out the phone. "Say hi to your girlfriend."

"Hey babe!" he yelled into the phone.

"Hi honey!" she yelled back.

"Selph, we live in an apartment," I reminded her quietly. She let out a little oops and took the phone quickly.

"How's it going?"

"Good," she answered, finding a bag of Goldfish and grabbing it. "Why?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to check on my favorite girls."

"Aww... Irvy, you're so sweet!" she said, standing in front of the refrigerator that she had just opened. I made a move to take the phone from her hands. She backed away, saying some last words on the phone. "Ah... Rinoa wants the phone now, so I'll tell you stuff tomorrow, okie?"

"Alright."

"Bye honey," she sweetly cooed into the phone before handing it to me as I pretended to be throwing up. I laughed and took it from her.

"What'd you really want?"

"Is that how you speak to your best friend?" he asked, acting as though he was hurt.

"Yup," I said shortly.

I heard him give a 'humpf' and move the phone. "Squall wants to talk to you."

My eye brows raised questioningly as he took the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey..." I answered softly. Wasn't this the guy I called a cheating bastard a few moments ago? "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he answered sincerely. "We just wanted to know how you girls are doing. We finally finished up our classes, so us guys are all done now."

I smiled. "That's... nice. Um..." I hesitated. What did he want me to say?

"You notice how Rinoa goes mushy every time she talks to Squall?" Quistis whispered to Selphie.

I covered up the mouthpiece of the phone. "You guys!" They darted into my bedroom and away from me.

"What's going on?" Squall asked, sensing our conversation.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "We're just looking through our pictures from vacation."

I think he nodded from the other end, but you never really know with Squall. I heard a door chime from his end. _He probably walked out the door of the cafe..._

"Rin?"

"Hmm?"

"Are Quistis and Selphie next to you?"

"No, they're in my room. Why?"

"No reason..." he said softly and sighed. There was a long pause.

"Squall?"

"Hmm?"

"You still there?"

"Yeah... sorry." He apologized, but there was once again a pause in the conversation.

"Squall, is something wrong?"

"No," he said quickly. "No."

"You can't think on the phone Squall. Phones, unfortunately, don't work that way," I joked. He was still silent. I suddenly became worried. What if there really was something wrong?

"Rin..." he spoke quietly. It was more like a delicate cry, like he was upset about something. The way he spoke that night...

"Squall, what's wrong?" I had been sitting on the counter of the kitchen, but slid off.

"Did you know," he said softly, "It was a year ago tonight that we broke up?"

I froze. _He remembers that?_ I looked at the calendar. _Huh... it really is._

"Um..."

"You probably didn't care," he continued, sadness still in his soft voice. "But I did. Just thought I'd let you know."

I remained silent. _Why?_

"It's been a full year still we broke up and went our separate ways, a year since we last held hands..." I stifled a cry as he said this, my memories resurfacing. I slid down to a crouch and leaned against the cabinets. "You seemed to survive it well," he said, and chuckled softly. "But I don't know how much longer I can hold out."

I fought back a cry as he said this. _What's going on? Why's he doing this to me?_ "Squall..." I cried softly into the phone.

There was a shuffling sound on the phone before he spoke. "Sorry to keep you away from your friends. I just couldn't help thinking about you tonight. Go have a good time with the girls tonight, okay Rin?"

I took a deep breath and wanted to say something, but it didn't come out - it _couldn't_ come out.

"Do me a favor and take care of yourself, okay?" he added. "See you later."

There was a click. He hung up. I put down the phone and wiped away the tears that began to form in my eyes.

_Squall._

Why? I shook my head and wiped my eyes, checking my appearance in the reflection that the microwave gave me. I stood up and walked back to Quistis and Selphie. I swore that nothing would ruin our girls' night in that night, no matter what.

* * *

**A/N:** To make up for taking so long, I tried to make the chapter itself long. ) Hope that's long enough! And hope you enjoyed it. Please review! 


	11. The New Beginning

**A/N:** Hah... to all the people who reviewed - thank you! I didn't mean for it to sound like you _have_ to review or something though... don't worry about it. I'm horrible at reviewing too (like Startdust Ray and Lil Doro know... they're on my favorites list, but I like never review... xD but they know I love their stories), so I don't really mind when I don't get many reviews. I totally understand. It was just disappointing at first, to follow 10 reviews with 4. That was all the note meant.

Hmm... I'm thinking I may need to change the categories of this story. Specifically for this chapter and others that follow. And the drama begins...

Rainy Days - Chapter 10 - Beyond Square One

* * *

I was bombarded by them as soon as I reached the door of my bedroom, even though they were distracted with the millions of pictures still sitting there anyway. 

"So..." Quistis started teasing, "What'd he say?"

"Was there _love_ in the air?" Selphie continued, wagging her eyebrows and drawing out the word 'love' like we did in elementary school.

"No," I said firmly. They continued talking and teasing me though, not hearing me the first time. "No - no - **_no!_**"

They quieted down as I said it louder and louder. I grabbed a photo book and jumped on the bed, trying to see if it'd help me get over the anger that had just built up. I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to calm myself. "Sorry..." I shook my head. "I ju-"

"Don't worry about it," Quistis cut me off quickly. I looked up and they were both smiling back at me. "We don't need to know."

Selphie nodded with a wide smile on her face. "It's girls' night in, remember? Fun stuff only!"

We laughed together as the mood of the room suddenly changed. I sat up and moved all the hair out of my face. "What would I do without you, Selph?"

"You'd be extremely depressing, that's what!"

"Yeah well... if it wasn't for a certain _someone_ neither of you would be here," Quistis said with a wave of her hand. "Who helped you pass your classes so you could get here?"

"Helped? You helped cram our brains about biochemical molecular _blah-blah-blah_. That's not helping, that's just sticking knowledge we don't need in our head," Selphie pointed out to her.

"You need to know that stuff!" she defended herself.

"No you don't..." Selphie continued, folding up her legs on to the chair she was sitting on. "Only to get through high school. We don't really need to know it in the real world. I mean, do I really need to understand that there are _approximately blah-blah-blah_ molecules in my burger? No..."

I saw Quistis open her mouth to shoot back a whole bunch of other facts (as well as correct everything that Selphie said), but stopped her before the argument got out of hand. When you put two people who are complete opposites like them in the same room, it was bound to happen eventually. I put up my hand between them. "Ah! Okay, we get it Quistis. I don't know what I'd do without you helping me through Chemistry. And Calculus. And English sometimes now that I think about it..."

I was going to go on, but this time, _she_ stopped _me_. "I got it Rin. Just needed you to include my name."

Selphie and I giggled together, hugging Quistis as we fell over. I was the first to get up.

"So... what about that fun thing we were talking about?" I asked. Selphie nodded excitedly and tore through my room, looking for make up, clothes, and whatever else she could find. I suddenly missed high school very, very much.

* * *

I didn't see Squall at all for almost a full month. The first couple of days, I tried to come up with as many excuses as I could to not go back to the cafe. An essay due the next day, a huge exam to study for, I direly needed to clean up my apartment because of... whatever the reason was. Whatever I could come up with, I told Selphie. Some days, I simply didn't go. Then, finally, I got over myself and went back to our routine. 

Unfortunately, as I started coming back, he too disappeared.

"He stopped coming not long after you did," Irvine told me one day. "He came for about a week, I think. He didn't really give a reason, but I think after he noticed you didn't come anymore, he just kind of stopped coming. Sorry Rin..."

I sighed and pressed my lips together. "Thanks anyway, Irvine." I put on a smile.

"No problem."

I continued to meet them after my classes everyday, hoping to see him start coming again too. But he never showed. Most of the time I just sat in a daze anyway, wondering where he was, what he was doing - how did I fit into his life? - it always took a couple of snaps or an extremely pestering Seifer to get me out of it.

The cold weather stayed in town the entire time. It was obvious we were moving quickly through autumn and into winter faster than usual. It didn't seem to rain for what seemed like forever - though it was always windy and cold. It was halfway through October before the rain finally came down on us. On the first day, I stopped by the cafe, but didn't say very long after a couple of 'hi's and Quistis helping me out with some of my math problems.

"Don't worry about me Selph," I said, wrapping a scarf around my neck. "I promise, I won't get sick." I waved, giving her a little peace sign and backed out the door of the cafe. I walked down the street putting a hat on and my hands in my pocket. The rain felt more like ice pellets because the outside temperatures were so cold. Nonetheless, I headed towards the nearby park that stood in the center of the city. My bag filled with spiral notebooks and huge school text books bounced along beside me as I walked down the streets and hills.

As usual, I danced through the park, jumping and twirling along hte path that cut through it. I stopped halfway through the park though. The rain felt sharper than usual. My bag hit the bench with a clunk as I sat down. There were few other people in the park - a little girl and her mother cutting through the park to get home, a few guys daring to play soccer in the rain (no doubt training for an important game coming up soon) - also saw an older girl way at the end of the park at a bus stop, balancing her umbrella on her shoulder with hot cocoa in one hand and a book in the other. The wasn't really anyone else.

I leaned against the back of the bench and turned to the side, putting my feet up on it. My pants - actually, everything I wore - were soaked with cold rain water. Hugging my knees, I leaned against them. My eyes lost focus. _Squall... _

What was he avoiding me? I didn't remember saying anything that would've offended him greatly. The only thing that really hanged between us was that phone call - which still, in my mind, made absolutely no sense._ He_ broke up with _me_, so _I_ should've been the one crying my eyes out. Not to mention it was _not_ a year since we broke up - it was _two_. He said he had a hard time moving on while I looked like I was fine. _What?_ My eyebrows burrowed together. Did he not notice how long it took me to even look him in the face when he came back. Everything he said on the phone where the things that _I _should've said, not _him_. What did he not understand about that? Was he saying it to rub it in? Or maybe it was because he know our past was my weak point? Nothing seemed right anymore...

I heard a chuckle from next to me as someone sat down. I looked up surprised that anyone would be in the rain - and even _more_ surprised at who it was.

"Seifer and Irvine told me that I'd fine you here if it ever rained," Zell said, leaning forward on his knees. "I guess they were right. They know you too well..." He laughed and shook his head. "It's crazy how close all you guys are sometimes."

I sat up and shifted, still not feeling completely comfortable with him for some reason. "What're you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I haven't seen you in a while. I've been meaning to talk to you again for months."

"Why?" I asked before he could even finish his sentence fully. He shrugged again.

"I wanted to apologize for that time when we went on a date..." he started. "I didn't mean to act so weird around you with the sudden kiss and everything..."

We both shifted this time, both still uncomfortable about it. I didn't like him bringing that up. But somehow I knew he felt guilty about it... and I didn't want him to feel bad about himself.

"It's okay," I said softly, pulling my coat tighter around me. The rain wasn't pouring down hard on us anymore, but it was still sprinkling and it was cold. "I've gotten over it. Really. ... mostly anyway."

He laughed at my attempted joke and shook his head. "I wouldn't blame you at all if you feel like-"

"Zell," I said sternly. "I told you: _don't worry about it._ We aren't 10 anymore; it takes way more than a kiss to get me angry - even if it was gross. No offense!"

"Hey, it didn't mean anything to me," he held his hands up. I smiled.

"Good. I'm glad that's behind us now."

"Friends then?" He held his hand out. "Only friends and nothing else or anything even close to it - my girlfriend would kill me," he quickly added.

I laughed and shook his hand. "Friends then. Make sure your girlfriend helps you keep that promise. I don't trust you fully yet," I joked.

He nodded and stood up. "Thanks Rinoa." He began to walk away when something occurred to me.

"Hey Zell!" I called to him, and stood up to walk over to him. He stopped and turned around to face me. "You haven't lent your phone to any of your friends or anything lately, have you?"

"Yeah, I let me my friends use it all the time," he said confused. My face dropped. He must've noticed something on my facial expression though, because he continued. "Usually only for a few minutes though, not much more. It's not like they keep it over night."

I nodded and smiled gratefully. It didn't really help answer any questions really, but it did feel better to let it out. "Thanks, Zell."

"I changed my number though," he added.

"Really?" I straightened. Now we were getting somewhere.

"Yeah, you can get it from Irvine. Can't really write in this weather," he laughed, holding out his hand as if to show off the rain. I laughed along with him.

"Right. I'll be sure to do that."

"Funny story... one of my old buddies ended up with the number," he said, his eyes wandering as if pondering on it. He then shrugged and shook water from his hair, laughing. "I think I'm turning into a poor wet puppy now." He waved and turned, walking towards one of the ends of the park, where the parking lots were.

While he was walking, my mind was running at 60 miles an hour at all of the new information and questions. If Zell's number was different, who had his number? And who was this person calling me?

_"Squall and I go way back,"_ he had said once. _Way back - _could it have been possible then that Squall got that number? After all, he did move into town recently - compared to everyone else anyway. And if he and Zell went way back, then they'd be considered _old buddies_. But then what logical reason would come to answer why? It'd still make no sense. But then again, he was often good at fooling people. Even if it didn't make sense, Squall would've been the only other person to have my number to. I didn't like strange people calling me, so only my closest friends and family knew the number to my room. It seemed to make sense, but didn't at the same time.

The rain began to fall harder once again and it seemed to get colder and darker. Picking up my bag, I pulled my jacket tightly around me again and headed home.

* * *

The phone was ringing as I was unlocking the door. I undid it was quickly as possible and scampered into the room kicking off my shoes, slamming the door with my hips, throwing off my jacket and bag, climbing over the couch and diving for the phone. 

"Hello?" I answered, breathing hard. I fell back against the couch that I had originally been standing on.

"Rinny!" Selphie cried. "What took you so long! Squall just came. He was looking for you. I'm glad I caught you just in time; we just sent him over."

"What?" I exclaimed, fumbling on the couch and falling over. My heart was still pumping heart and beating fast, and I was still trying to catch my breath. "But Selphie-"

"He should be there soon, Rin. He looked like he had something important to tell you," Selphie said quickly, but seriously. She apologized for not giving me a warning as well, but had to hang up. "I'll talk to you later, okay? Irvy and I have reservations we have to get to - I'm so sorry Rin! Bye!"

And she hung up. I sighed and pushed the end button, dropping the phone on the couch. I leaned back taking a deep breath, rubbing my face and moaning. _Why now? Why **now**_?

_Uh-oh._ I sat up. Selphie's words hit me suddenly like a rock. _"He should be there soon."_

"Shit," I mumbled to myself. "Oh crap..."

My hands flew to my hair. My hair was all tangly and in knots. My pants were still fairly wet - though mostly dry compared to my hair - and were cold. I had a scarf on, but wore only a blue tube top with that as I originally walked around with my jacket on the entire time. _That_ was now thoroughly soaked as well. I ran to the bedroom, searching for a hair dryer.

_Hair dryer... hair dryer... **YES!** _I jumped as I found it. _Hair dryer! _I blow dried my hair quickly and slapped on a touch of make up that had begun to run before deciding to go back to the main room. If I just kept the door shut, he would never notice the giant mess.

I ran around the room picking up everything I had knocked over and thrown on the ground. There were still dirty dishes and cups sitting out as well that I had to hide and the couches were all wrinkled from me stomping all over them as I came in.

A knock came on the door just as I was mid-way through cleaning. I had my jacket in one and and bag in the other. I panicked for a second, but then throw open the door of my room and tossed everything into it. I slammed it shut and ran to the front door. I paused before opening it, smoothing out my hair and taking a deep breath, smiling as I opened it.

"Hi," I breathed out. My heart was still pumping hard from my speed cleaning. _Talk about last minute!_

"Hey," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I was cleaning," I explained, opening the door, wider. "Come on in."

"Thanks," he said with a small smile. "Do you normally wear that to clean? I can come over and help you more often if you need it then."

I looked down at myself and let out a soft squeal. My eyes narrowed. "Pervert."

He smirked back and turned, walking to the couch. I grabbed an old sweater that was laying nearby and threw it over my head before sitting down opposite of him.

"Um, do you want anything?" I asked, fumbling with my sleeves. "Coffee? Tea? Water?"

He shook his head sighing. I also took a deep breath, and folded my legs, sitting on them. We both opened our mouths and spoke at the same time.

"Look--"

"Listen--"

I chuckled and pointed to him. "You first. I was just telling you to start."

He nodded and spoke softly. "The last time we talked... it was... awkward. And on the phone, where I - for once - did most of the talking."

I shifted my legs. I knew he'd bring it up. I admitted it to myself already that it was one thing that we needed to mention. But why was it so hard for me?

"I don't want you to be uncomfortable around me Rin."

"I'm not," I said firmly.

"Yes you are," he countered. "You're _really_ uncomfortable around me, Rin. I can just tell. You aren't acting like you usually do."

"Well, your last phone call didn't really help."

He leaned back and took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to sound so... so obsessed about you or anything like that."

"You didn't," I verified for him. "Maybe I overreacted and-"

"Overreacted?" He laughed, the deep sound filled with sarcasm. "Rin, you didn't react at all when I told you all that stuff. You just sat in silence. I wasn't even sure you were _listening!_ Do you have any idea what was running through my mind? I thought..." he paused and took a deep breath again. "You know what? Never mind. I don't even know why I'm here." He rose and walked to the door. "Maybe I just expect too much from people..."

I stared at him with disbelief. Ice seemed to fill the air as he spoke, his temper and the tension around us rising for no apparent reason. I got up as he did and grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving.

"Don't go yet," I whispered out to him, still unable to look him in the eye. His coat was slightly wet from the rain outside. I could feel his arm muscles tighten as he tried to walk away while I held him back.

"Why?" I let go. His arm fell limp against his side. Why _had_ I stopped him? I wasn't sure myself.

"I..." I couldn't come up with anything. "On the phone..." I started, spitting out whatever I could think of. "You said it was only a year ago-"

"It was a year ago you left me," he said, walking towards the door again. I held him back again.

"It was _two_ years ago _you_-"

"It was two years ago we agreed that we would go to different places," he said "We agreed to meet new people. It was a year ago I came back and expected you to still stay by me."

He turned and looked straight in my eyes as he said this, voicing confidence and what seemed like pain. He pulled harder on his arm, finally getting out my grip. I was frozen in my spot for a second before I sprinted and squished in between him and the door, leaning against it to keep him from leaving.

"Squall, don't!" I breathed out. My heart began pumping again. We were much closer than we had been in well over 2 years. Luckily, he backed up and leaned against the wall instead with a frown on his face. He waited for me to continue. "You... you said I was okay," I said, lowering down to a half whisper. "That I was able to move on. That I didn't _care_." Tears began to rim my eyes and my hands balled into fists. My voice suddenly had an edge to it, almost in a hiss. "I cared more than anything. I didn't move on at all. I _couldn't_ move on! I blame you for everything!"

My balled fists raised and shot towards him. "Rinoa, what's wrong with you?" he asked while trying to dodge my attacking claws. His hands finally grabbed a hold of my wrists, and he held on tight.

I fought for a bit before giving up and dropping my hands. I wiped my eyes, trying to rub away any signs of tears that happened to come out. I shook my head, taking a deep breath. "I told you... you were wrong," I said softly. I leaned against the door, sliding down it and using it to support me. My hands covered my mouth as I admitted it to both him and myself. "I couldn't get over you..."

He knelt down beside me. "Rin... Rinoa..." He sighed and wiped away a tear that was coming down my cheek. I could see in his eyes he was trying to say sorry without being so blunt. He opened his mouth to speak, but the phone cut him off. I jumped at the sudden ringing and let my head fall against the door.

"Machine will get it," I said softly, pushing myself off the floor.

"Rin..." Squall continued. "Rin, what about Zell?"

I shrugged. "Selphie and Irvine set me up. It didn't work out anyway," I put my hand up. "Don't say sorry. Neither of us were happy together anyway. He's got a really sweet new girlfriend, you should meet her one day." I leaned against the cabinet that the phone sat on and smiled at him, trying to change the mood. He smiled back.

The machine beeped. "Oh angel..." a sickeningly sweet and mocking voice rang through the speaker. I jumped when I heard this, turning my full body around to face the phone. "I can see you _all_ the time. Don't think I don't know about Prince Charming in your room right now. Tell him..."

I turned down the volume on it quickly and backed away from the phone, turning my head to look at Squall. Concerned eyes stared back at me.

"Wha-"

"I don't know," I told him simply, wanting to cry. I put my hands on my hips. "Selphie and Quistis call him a stalker. He's been following me or something... _I don't know_. He keeps calling me Squall! He won't leave me alone! The messages... it first started..."

To put it simply, I was in a panic. My voice was a bit higher than usual, and I was rambling, muttering things about the crazy man to Squall while he had no idea what the hell I was talking about. He didn't know how else to calm me though, and did so in the only way he ever knew.

He pulled me close to his body. His arms closed in around me and our heads were next to each other. He whispered into my ear little things that helped soothe me. "Rin," he'd say. "Rin, it's me. I'm right here." I threw my arms over his shoulders, gripping on to his shirt and crying into his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere. Shhh... don't worry about it, okay? I won't let anything happen, I promise."

And my grip loosened. I stopped crying and leaned my head on his shoulder instead. He walked me over to the couch where we sat, his arm still around me to ensure that I was okay. I wiped my cheeks and stood up, sniffing.

I apologized to him quickly. "I didn't mean to turn the waterworks on you and everything..."

"It's okay..." he nodded. There was an awkward silence between us. I scratched at the bottom of my hairline, trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Squall beat me though, in a way, by standing and moving towards the door once again.

"Squall," I called. He stopped just at the door knob. "You aren't walking out of my life again, are you?"

"I'm not walking out of your life," he laughed. "I'm walking home."

"But... about _us_..."

"... we'll start over," he said. "As friends again." He walked over and held out his hand.

I shook my head. I didn't know what to do. _I don't think I can do _just_ friends..._

He saw this and dropped his hand. Instead, he walked over and wrapped his arms around me in a hug again. "Fine then," he whispered. His chin rested up the top of my head. I breathed in deeply, taking in his scent. "We'll start over... _together_. We'll explain everything. What went wrong... why we had to turn back and start at the beginning again."

I nodded, even though I was pressed up against his chest. I could feel him smiling through my hair. I reached up to find his hand and held it, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Thank you..."

I let him go. He brushed his lips against my cheek before leaving.

"It feels good to be able to do that again..." he whispered to me. I smiled softly and nodded, feeling a blush creeping its way into my cheeks.

"You better get going, it's getting dark." I waved to him as he left, walking down the empty hallway. It wasn't until he turned the corner that I shut the door.

I leaned my head against the door and smiled, letting out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding. It felt so much better to be relieved of whatever worries and tensions were between me and Squall. It felt so _right_ when I was back in his arms - I missed it for two years. I missed _him_ for two years. All the anger and jealousy and whatever other emotions I was able to conjure up against him were now gone. Whatever unanswered question was left, he promised he'd tell me soon. _He promised._

And although I knew we weren't starting where we left off, it was a relief to know that we were still starting somewhere. Somewhere just beyond square one.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh the drama! I hope what you wanted to happen for a while has happened now. Sorry if this seems like it's moving along too quickly or something... especially this chapter. It may seem kind of sudden and stuff, but... there's really nothing I could do about it. I wanted to get at least _something_ done before school started up again. I didn't want to leave you hanging with a crappy chapter. I know once I'm back in school I won't update as soon as I do now. 

Eww... for some reason I wanted to look through the work that I've done so far and I looked through the first few chapters of this story. Arghhh... they're so horrible. One of these days I'll have to revise those too... they were extremely short compared to these later chapters too. Anyway, please review! Thank you!


	12. The Acceptance of the Truth

**Author's Note:** That last chapter was a bit confusing, wasn't it? I thought it was. Even while posting it I was like "Hmm... I think I should revise it or change it some more...?" but then I was like _but how would I change it?_ I still don't know. xD But I wish I had slowed down the plot line a bit. You guys may have felt that it was just right, but I still think it was fast. Do relationships really begin/end that fast in real life? ... actually, maybe... The drama in my story is driving me crazy. xD Oh, and I _did_ change the chapter titles - you're not imagining or remembering wrong. They were too long.

_Rainy Days _- Chapter Ten - Acceptance

* * *

Somehow, time just flew right by. A humming sound near my ear woke me out of a deep sleep that I didn't remember starting, in a bed I hardly remembered getting in. I rolled over in bed towards one of the tables that sat next to it where my cell phone sat, blinking and vibrating as someone called in. My head throbbed and felt as though it would explode. I groggily reached over and flipped open the phone to answer it, hoping the head ache was only temporary. 

"Good morning, sleepy head," a warm, motherly voice greeted me.

I groaned. "What time is it?"

"Eleven-ish. Almost noon."

I sat up in bed. The throbbing sensation continued, or maybe even grew. "You're kidding!" I exclaimed, before looking at the clock. I groaned again. "You're not."

"Sorry," she replied, sounding apologetic. "Seifer and I are at the cafe right now though. Want anything? Some mocha; maybe a blue berry muffin..."

"Thanks, Quisty," I sighed and leaned back against the head rest of my bed. "But no thanks. I'm not feeling too sunshine and glory today."

"Are you okay though?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I said, waving off her concern. I rubbed my temples all the while though, trying to massage the head ache out. "Some aspirin should do the trick."

"All right," she said, though there was some doubt behind her voice. She didn't believe me one bit. "But if you need anything, give me a call. Soup, company, a maid..."

"Thanks, but I'm fine. Really. Don't worry about me and have a good day with Seifer."

"Hmmph..." she half chucked. "I only get to see the man every single day."

I heard a "Hey!" in the background from Seifer as he began to rant about how lucky she was that he cared about her enough to drag his butt down to see her. I laughed as she yelled back about how the phone call was a private conversation that he shouldn't have been listening it. It made me wonder what the two were really like without all of us there with them.

"Well, it's not exactly a peachy day," she continued. After she recomposed herself, I imagined. There was a pause and a shuffle on the other line. "Hey, Rin? We'll be by later to see you, okay? I've got to explain to Seifer now, why he doesn't get a maid. Get well soon!"

There was a click from the other end. I laughed at the couple and their strange relationship. Or at least, tried. The laugh soon died though, as pain surged up to my temples. I groaned and sank into the bed sheets and fluffy pillows. So much for getting well soon.

"Nope," I mumbled to myself. "Not a happy day..."

The day before was more than the average overwhelming day with your friends in college. First there was the whole walking home in the rain after hanging on in the park and getting soaked to the bone. After that was the running around the apartment cleaning in a tube top because everything else was wet and the apartment was a mess. Between Squall and the phone call and the school work and the house work... my last hours of the day were pretty much insane. Being wet plus being busy does _not_ equal happiness. In fact, that was probably why I had that head ache - it was otherwise known as the _flu_. Or at least the common cold.

"Dammit..." I whined as I pulled the bed covers over my head. "I hate myself sometimes..."

* * *

Selphie came by within the hour (Quistis no doubt called her within five minutes), and Quistis followed in an hour later. Irvine and Seifer were (naturally) in tow. Selphie had brought over some soup for me to eat and made me eat it right away. By the time I had finished, Quistis came by with groceries. They tried to tuck me into bed, but I refused to and was forced to watch TV with the guys while they worked. I walked over to where they were several times, offering to help them (it was _my_ apartment after all...), but they kept kicking me out. I hadn't bothered cleaning or changing at all, so I was walking around the apartment in my pajamas with my bed covers draped over my shoulders that followed me around like an oversized, meant for overweight superheroes cape. Irvine joked that I was Matress Woman or something along that sort of super hero name. 

Certain parts of the room were completely unorganized from the day before, because I had just thrown in all of my things so Squall didn't see me as a slob. It was around 4 that they gave me my cold medicine that put me to sleep. Everything was already done by then. The whole apartment was swept and cleaned, and I had food in my fridge. I was ordered by Quistis to heat them up whenever I was hungry because they were much healthier for me and would help me get over my cold if it didn't go away soon. I think I agreed, but I wasn't too sure.

By the time I was sleeping, they weren't gone yet, but I was sure they left not too long afterwards. I crawled out of bed and pulled a thin blanket from my closet. The head aches and sniffling and all symptoms of the cold appeared to be gone, but it was at least eight at night and the temperature had gone down. I walked out of my bedroom to heat up some of the food that Quistis had left behind for me, expecting the apartment to be empty. When I opened the door though, I saw a sleeping figure on the couch. I crept past them and successfully heated up a meal for myself without waking them up. I even managed to get through eating the meal and cleaning up after myself.

On the way back though, I realized it was Squall and tried to pull my blanket over him. As soft as my touch was, he still stirred. His eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the lights that I had turned on. I watched him for a few seconds as he tried to figure out where he was.

"Rinoa!" he exclaimed as he jumped up into a sitting position. He quickly straightened his hair and clothes, trying to look as dignified as possible.

I giggled and winked, putting my index finger up to my lips. "Shh... I promise, I won't tell anyone."

He ran his fingers through his hair. His head hung low as he groaned. "I was supposed to take care of you when you woke up and-"

I held up my hand to stop him for going on. "I ate. I'm full. I'm done. I'm better again. Really, I am."

He sighed. I felt his arms slide around my waist. He turned me around so that my back was towards him and pulled me close, resting his chin on my shoulder. His lips brushed my ear. Unfortunately, I don't think it was on purpose. "But I shouldn't have fallen asleep," he whispered, as though he was disappointed and failed to complete some sort of mission.

There was a long silence. It wasn't really awkward, but it wasn't a warm silence either. I felt around my waist for his hands and wrapped my fingers over his. I slid out of his embrace and turned to face him.

"What're you doing here, Squall?" I asked him. Clearly.

He sat up straight. A confused expression filled his face. "What?"

I looked away, trying to figure out the words that would explain it to him. It was rude and I knew it, but it was something that I couldn't help but ask.

"Squall," I said softly. "When I fell asleep, my best friends were with me (with their boyfriends mind you, but it was still my best friends; their boyfriends probably didn't even realize where they were). When I woke up, my best friends were replaced with my boyfriend that I had just gotten back together with _yesterday_, sleeping on my couch. Do you see my point in this?"

He stayed silent for a minute, trying to figure out my girlish ways. I laughed at it in my head, but shook my head in reality and tried to make it clear for him. "Honey, you're awesome, but it's kind of creepy. If this doesn't scare me just a little bit, then it's hard to say what does."

He blinked, trying to absorb whatever reason it was I was giving him. "Squall, all I really want to know is why you're here - how you got in - heck, how'd you even know to be here today?"

That much helped him. I heard a soft 'oh' escape his lips as he explained.

"Selphie told me you were sick," he said simply, shrugging. "I _was_ going to come over at the same time as the rest of them, but she told me not to worry about it and to come later."

I nodded. It sounded like Selphie alright.

"I told her I didn't mind missing any classes b-"

"Wait - what?" I stopped him, mid-sentence. "Why would you cut class?"

"I thought you were seriously sick or something! She didn't say that it was just a cold," he scoffed.

I laughed and held his face in my hands. "Let me guess... your classes ended at 4, so you rushed over here _just _in time to catch them leaving, and me sleeping."

"Yeah..." his eyes were sort of unfocused as he stared at me in amazement that I knew all that. "How'd you know?"

"You're sweet, you know that?" I laughed and moved closer, hugging him. "Women's intuition."

I could tell he totally didn't get it. But that was okay. I sat back down, leaning my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me, and ran his hands down my cheek. There was a comforting silence as the conversation died down. After a few moments with him though, I realized there were a lot of things left to discuss from yesterday.

"Squall?"

"Hmm?" He pulled the blanket around the both of us. I snuggled closer to him, feeling him relax at the same time. I always loved how him for that. He hated public displays of affection (when it involved him anyway). But when we were alone he was always much more intimate. It made me feel close, safe and _loved_. No one else knew this soft side of him except me.

"About... us."

"What about us?" he asked. I hesitated. _What about us?_ I wasn't really sure. I knew what answers I wanted out of him, but couldn't figure out how to phrase my questions.

"How did we... no, _why_ did we get so..."

"Distant?"

"Sure." If that was even the word for it.

He shifted in his seat. "I don't know. Ask yourself."

"You're not helping."

"Well, what'd you want me to say? I don't even know where to start with our story."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine then. Start two years ago. Who was the girl?"

"What girl?" I pulled away from him.

I looked at him in disgust. Was he with so many girls that he couldn't even remember? "The girl that you brought here last year!"

"I didn't bring a girl last year!" he nearly shouted back. Our voices were suddenly getting extremely loud. Though we weren't yelling yet, it was obvious we were building up to it.

"And even if I did," he continued, but softer. "You counted wrong. That was last year. Not two years ago."

I shook my head. "Fine! Last year! Whatever!" I was getting fed up. I backed away from him to the other end of the couch. "If you don't want to talk about it, you can just leave."

"Rinoa," he reached over to touch my arm, but I pulled back. "Alright then. Suppose I _did_ bring some girl with me last year. Why don't I remember it?"

"I don't know."

"Rinoa, just tell me," he sighed. "Refresh my memory. Something. I can't discuss anything with just me talking."

I made a face, but sat up and 'refreshed his memory' in the best way I knew how to in the situation - bluntly. Screw being polite.

"You came to visit after a year in college. Some blonde slut wearing a bikini came in, said... _something_ to you. You called me your ex-girlfriend while introducing us, whispered something back to her, kissed her and... I don't quite remember. Oh, I remember being cold since then," I finished sarcastically. "Hmm... I wonder why."

He stayed quiet for a while, racking his brain for the memory of this. "Last year? When I came to visit?" He shook his head. "I never kissed anyone else Rinoa..."

There was something about the words that he kept using. They made me melt.

"Well, maybe you didn't _kiss_ her, really..." I said, trying to freeze back. I needed the full story of this before I could go on any more with him. "You kissed her hand. But you _clearly_ flirted. Which surprised me because you _hate_ PDA."

He thought for a moment before chuckling. "The cafe, right?" I nodded, causing him to laugh more. "You're right. There was a girl there."

I stiffened. This was what I wanted from him really - a confession. But some how, I hadn't expected it. And why was he laughing?

"She wasn't my new girlfriend (or whatever it was you thought), Rinoa," he laughed. "I didn't bring her. Not really anyway. I brought some of my guy friends with me, and they were there. She was one of their girlfriends... I think it was Nida. ... that bastard..."

I was still confused. He could tell as he looked over at me.

"They played truth or dare while I was talking to you. I hate that game..." he shook his head. "She was dared to get a kiss from me. That's what she whispered to me. I don't think that was the kiss they were expecting, but... it worked."

I raised my eyebrows. That was _it?_ **_That_** was the big thing that caused that rift between us?

"But you called me your ex-girlfriend and..."

"Well you were, in a way," he shrugged. "That's how they all knew you. The ex that I couldn't get over and couldn't wait to get back together with."

"Really?" I asked, before regretting it. I winced. _That_ was sophisticated. He shrugged it off though, and just laughed.

"Yeah, really," he shook his head. "Is that all you were mad at me for? The fact that I kissed one of my friends' girlfriends on a dare?"

My mouth that had been wide open snapped shut and my eyes began to wander. "Um..."

"You seriously thought she was _my_ girlfriend?"

"Maybe..." My tongue ran along the rough edges of my teeth and I began to notice the little spider webs that formed in the corners of the rooms. I could feel his eyes lingering on me; seeing right through me. He could tell that I was stalling. I smiled sheepishly. "Yes?"

He picked up one of the small pillows that I had on the couch and brought it down on me, hitting me hard on the top of my head. "Hey!"

"You didn't talk to me for a year!"

"Well what was I supposed to think?" I snatched the pillow from his hand and hit him right back. "And you! You never explained it to me!"

"I am now!"

"Yeah, _now_." I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, boys..."

He made a sour face. "Women..." he muttered, rolling his eyes. He focused back on me, cornering me this time. "Yeah well, what about Zell?"

"I told you, didn't I? Blind date," I said lightly, waving my hand. It was his turn to doubt me this time. "What? It's true!"

He nodded along and took the pillow back. "So much for that."

"Yeah, really..." I mumbled. There was yet another silence, signaling the end of the conversation. The night seemed to be full of them. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him leaning towards me slowly. I stuck my arm out, keeping him away for a moment. "We're still starting over."

"Why?" he asked, sounding almost whiney - although I couldn't really imagine Squall whining.

"Because we should."

"But we don't have to."

"But we should so we understand each other better," I replied, sounding like one of those counselors that work with married couples that have a rocky relationship. He rolled his eyes, but agreed anyway. I smiled back, giggling a little bit. "I always win."

I leaned my head on his shoulder again and reached for the remote control. "You wanna watch TV?"

He shrugged. Typical. I turned it on, assuming it was a yes.

"I wonder how Selphie knew we were back together..." I mumbled out randomly during a commercial.

"What makes you think she knows?"

"Would she have called you if you and I weren't back together?"

He paused. "Probably."

"No," I said simply. "She only calls my best, most trusting friends. Who just happen to have their boyfriends attached to their hips. Besides," I added. "She wouldn't have left you here alone."

* * *

At ten, Squall made me take some medication again, just to make sure that the cold was _completely_ gone. I was asleep by 10:30 probably. He left not long afterwards. I woke up the next morning to an empty apartment. The refrigerator was full of food though, and there was no sign of the slightest flu bug in me. It was _pouring_ outside though, and buckets of rain fell for the entire day. I wanted to go out and meet up with everyone, but unfortunately, the rain didn't seem to want to let up any time soon. 

The day after that, the rain cleared, but the clouds didn't seem to want to go anywhere. The cafe was crammed since no one seemed to want to go out in the cold. We were able to get our usual table though, luckily, since we were regulars at the cafe.

"Selphie..." I said as I approached the table. I was the last to arrive - go figure - but they had a seat saved for me. "Why'd you leave Squall at my apartment?"

She looked up at me just in time and smiled sweetly, giggling. "Well..." she paused for a moment, for a effect I supposed, since there wasn't really a reason to pause. "I promised Zell's girlfriend that I'd go shopping with her, so I called Squall to leave him at your place!" She smiled wider, if it was even possible. "And Quistis and Seifer had something to do, right guys?"

"What?" Seifer's head turned so fast, it might've spun off. "No we di--oww!"

Quistis kicked him under the table and glared at him, and he glared right back. She turned to me and smiled. "Sorry Rin - we had no choice but to leave him there alone."

I nodded along, taking off my jacket and sitting down in front of Squall. I took out a pen and notebook, just to make it seem like I dropped the subject. I stopped as my hand went down to write, smiling back at the two of them. "What do you know?"

"Know what?" Selphie and Quistis asked together. Squall let out a soft chuckle/snort before taking a sip of his coffee.

I set down my pen down and rested my elbow on the table. "About us?"

"What're you talking about Rin?" Quistis asked, innocently as possible.

I raised my eyebrow as Selphie's eyes wandered. She must've felt like I was glaring at her though, because she quickly, slammed her hand down on the table. "Okay, fine! So we know how you and Squall are back together!"

I laughed. "Thought so," I said to myself, picking the pen back up, but continued to talk to them. "And... how'd you know?"

"We didn't really..." Quistis started. She had a thoughtful sort of look on her face, thinking back to a few days before. "We get saw Squall coming out of your doorthe other day when we were going to visit."

"He looked really pleased!" Selphie added. "So I _knew_ you two had gotten back together!"

"Just because I looked pleased, Rinoa and I automatically a couple again?" Squall cut in. Selphie and Quistis looked at each other, faces in panic. I could just see the conversation they were having together using their eyes. _'Oh no, they're not!' 'Man, we were so wrong!'_

"Just so you know, we are," I said, scribbling in my notebook. I looked back up at them with a small smile on their face.

It took a second before Selphie and Quistis reacted. Quistis just beamed back. Irvine also smiled, adding in "Congratulations!" Selphie jumped up and nearly screamed, "I knew it!" but Irvine hopped up and pulled her back down, smiling sheepishly at the people staring at us. Seifer's jaw dropped.

"I thought you called him a bas-_would you stop kicking me?_" Seifer angrily hissed through gritted teeth.

I laughed as Quistis scolded him. When everyone finally quieted down, Irvine turned to me again.

"I hate to be the down side of things," he said, "but how do you know you can trust him again? No offense, Squall."

Squall nodded, acknowledging the statement, but didn't say anything. Seifer continued for him.

"Didn't you say he cheated on you two years ago?"

I took a deep breath, trying to think of how to explain it in a short way. Squall beat me to it though.

"It was a mistake."

"Now you say that," Irvine shot back. "But what were you thinking then?"

"It was a misunderstanding," I cut in. "We've worked it out, Irvine."

He leaned back in his seat. He was still doubtful. "If you do anything to let that happen again..."

"It won't," Squall said. My hand and pen were still on the table, next to the notebook I was writing in. His hand slid right over it, stroking it soothingly. "I promise."

I looked down at the ground, and then back up at our hands entwined. I could feel the heat rise up to my cheeks.

"Rinny..." Selphie started, but changed her mind. "Squall. Take care of Rinny for us, okay?"

Quistis nodded. "You're the only one who was able to keep her sane."

"We're not _going_ anywhere," I said randomly.

I got a few confused looks, but eventually got laughs out of all of them.

"Thank you," I sighed. "We're all so depressing lately! Man, it's driving me crazy!"

"You know what this means?" Irvine asked, referring to the fact that Squall and I were together. "_Triple_ dates!"

We spent the next hour together at the table joking around and throwing french fries at Irvine.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so this chapter was kind of pointless, but still entertaining - hopefully. I needed some sort of transitional phase and development. Thanks for reading - please review! 

**Stardust Ray - **I hope you guys are doing okay! I read your profile and was like O.O Oh my gosh...  
**Angelsorceress **- Yeah, I realize I made typos. The last chapter that went out went without proof reading. Same with this one. Hah... sorry. I don't use a beta reader because it spoils my fun. I usually proof read on my own, but I get so busy sometimes. Afterwards, I get lazy. xD  
**heartillyangel** - I'm glad you like my story and feel that it stands out. Your comment really motivated me. I'd hate to think that my writing is just like everyone else's. I don't expect it to be the best, but I do have high standards for myself and would prefer not to be a writer that's the same as all the other writers on I should hope my characters seem human. Or my main ones at least. If they aren't, then I must say that I've failed as a writer.  
**LilDoro** - Focus on the stalker caller? Why never! Focusing on it just takes all the mystery and suspense out of it. I'm thinking about more fluff and cushioning for Squall and Rinoa. But like I always say, you never know. I don't write this chapter in a day, and I never know what idea will come to mind, so... -shrugs- I don't know... and Squall's OOC-ness? ... it's an AU fic. Go with it. xD  
**invain** - To tell you the truth, the reason I put that part in is because after I had published the original chapter eight (I think it was 8...), I went back and realized that I had him say 'one year' and forgot that at the beginning, a year had already passed. Oops. I've worked my way around it though, and am _hoping_ that I'll be able to fit some sort of answer into this chapter. If not, the next chapter.  
Thanks everyone else who reviewed too!


	13. The Argument and Threat

**Author's Note: **Eh, I'm ranting near the end this time. xD Sorry for how long this chapter took! Not only did I do this between school work and activities, but I had some trouble with writer's block for a while...

_Rainy Days - _Chapter Eleven

**Standard disclaimers apply**

* * *

Squall was accepted by everyone pretty easily. Not that he wouldn't have been anyway. He was, after all, one of our best friends. The fact that he was actually dating me now didn't change anything at all - we were the closest anyway. Apparently, to Quistis and Selphie, we had been flirting with each other for the longest time. I just wouldn't admit that I missed him, and he was hesitant about getting close to me. Each time they mentioned it, I denied that I was secretly in love with him for all those months that he was back, even though I knew it was kind of true. 

Nothing really happened for a while. There were ups and downs obviously, mostly in school more than anything. Some days felt like weeks while others were like minutes; other than stressful classes and lack of sleep on certain days, life was pretty good. Sure, it was kind of boring at times (really boring, actually), but it was nice to have them. It was really nice to not have any sudden bursts of emotion or crazy stalker phone calls. I was able to sit down with my boyfriend and hang out, having a good time. I finally got the normal life that I had wanted.

"So..." Selphie excitedly came up behind me one day. "The big one month today, huh?"

"I can't believe you keep track of that," I laughed, rolling my eyes. I adjusted my scarf and bangs that hit my face as a huge gust of wind blew by. Leaves flew all around us as we walked down the street towards the cafe. "Even I don't keep track of it. And it's my own anniversary!"

We laughed together, and she pretended to pout. "You're _so_ unromantic, Rin," she said, making huge, dramatic movements with her hands. "Aren't you doing _anything_ special for your one month?"

I faked thought for a moment while holding on to the door handle of the cafe. "Um... not really," I laughed, opening the door for her. She walked in and sat down on one of the high stools in the middle of the cafe.

"You're such a boring couple, you know that?" 1

I waved at the workers behind the counter, signaling for our usual. "We are not boring."

"Yeah you are," she said, waving her hand. "If you were exciting, you'd find more romance in more places! Like me and Irvine. Next week is our two months and five months! He's taking me for dinner at Alki Beach."

"Wow," was all I could say. One of the workers brought some cookies to us and interrupted us for a moment. I thanked her as she walked away before biting into a cookie.

"What do you mean, 'wow.' It's going to be awesome! Last month he took me out to pier and for our big two year anniversary he took me out on one of the ferries for a romantic night," she sighed, getting a dreamy look in her eyes. After a couple moments of cookie munching (on my part), she snapped out of it and shook her head. "Why don't you guys do something?"

"Like what?" I asked, half a cookie stuffed in my mouth. I swallowed. "Go bowling for our one month anniversary? Oh _wow!_"I shook my head, laughing.

She frowned. "You're no fun. You really should do something!"

"This conversation's getting a bit repetitive," I mumbled to myself, stuffing a third cookie into my mouth. "Like what Selphie? Throw me some ideas."

"I don't know," she started. "Like a special dinner in that Italian restaurant -"

"Done it," I replied. "Twice."

"No, you were doubled with me and Irvy, and then Quisty and Seifer," she argued back quickly. "Or maybe you could take a moonlight stroll somewhere. Like that park by Central Street. Course you'd have to drive all the way down there first, but it's totally worth it with the whole moonlight by the lake! It's too bad we don't have any beaches really nearby... but it's almost December, so you don't want to go to a beach anyway... but there's still so much, like..."

A waitress stopped by with our orders and receipt. I smiled, thanking her again, and laughed, taking a sip out of my cup of coffee.

"Selphie," I said firmly, getting her attention. She was still talking about the many things that she and Irvine had done in the past that we could've done. "I think we'll be okay just hanging out in my apartment tonight."

"But Rinny!" she pouted. "This is _big!_ This is the one month that you've surpassed without any fights and stuff!"

"But Selphie..." I said, trying to be as kind as possible. "One month is _nothing_ compared to one year. And besides, if you add it all up, we've been together for like... three years."

She sighed, picking up her own coffee and drinking some. "True... but still. Nothing? At all?"

"Yeah," I said, scrunching up my nose and smiling. "Just us hanging out tonight. Like we always do. That's it."

She stared back blankly in reply.

"What?" I asked. "I think it's good. It'd gives me a sense of normalcy and comfort."

She huffed. "And I thought Quistis and Seifer were boring..."

* * *

The door bell rang at seven o'clock exactly. Squall always had some weird way of knowing exactly when to leave and exactly when he would arrive somewhere. It was a bit unnerving at first. But I got used to it after a while. After being away from him for two years, I had totally forgotten about his timing. 

I jumped off of my bed and walked out of the door of my bedroom to open the front door. 2

"Hey you," I said as I opened the door, running my fingers through my hair. He smiled back and brushed his lips against my cheek. Squall was always a bit sensitive about that. He never really kissed me unless the timing was just right. I led him to the living room area

"Ah," he said as he sat on the couch, picking up one of many thick books that were scattered around the apartment. "Advanced Physics. My favorite."

I laughed, hiding my face in shame. I was so comfortable around Squall that I never really bothered cleaning up and making myself look nice in front of him. Even at that moment I was wearing my school sweatshirt and shorts.

"Sorry!" I laughed. "I was cramming for exams. Two days from now. All at once. It's driving me crazy." I turned right and into the kitchen. "Is Pepsi okay?"

"Yeah," he said, looking over at me. I grabbed some cups and coasters and cans and walked over to sit by him.

He was still looking at my notes. I bit my lip as I took them out of his hands and stacked them on the table. "Sorry again."

"It's fine," he said, still looking at them. "Really. Do you want me to help?"

"Nah, I'll cram some more later. I still have a day," I pulled my legs up on the couch and sat crisscrossed facing him. I sat there kind of bobbing my head or nodding for a while, before laughing to myself. He smiled along. "I don't think we've _ever_ been so quiet or uncomfortable around each other before," I laughed.

He raised his eyebrows, agreeing, and adjusted his position on the couch. "Same," he said, pausing. "Why aren't we?"

"Because Selphie reminded me of something about us and it keeps me thinking," I told him honestly, shaking my head. He stared at me funnily for a moment, as I spit it all out as one long sentence. It took him a moment to process it before it clicked in his mind.

"So," he started, confused. "What was that something she reminded you about?"

I sighed, slightly embarrassed to tell him that I had forgotten. I bit my lip shyly. "It's our one month anniversary today."

"I know," he said. He shrugged. "Rinoa... one month isn't that big of a stepping stone... is it?"

"That's what I said!" I laughed. I rolled my eyes. "Then Selphie went on about how '_Oh of course it is Rinoa! You haven't seen him for two years and now you've been together for a month!'_"

"We've been through longer."

"We have."

We fell silent again. Usually we could think of billions of things to talk about - little details and jokes that we had missed during the two years he was gone. But on the one important-ish night we had together, we couldn't. There wasn't anything we had to say to each other.

In the end I let him help me study for all of my exams. We covered just about every part of my apartment; I had somehow spread all of my notes out well enough to make them into stations, so each 'station' was a class and we worked on each subject for about half an hour to forty-five minutes. It had been Squall's idea, so that I could study more in dept in each subject. As boring as it sounded, it was kind of fun, though after a while he started hitting me in the head as I insisted that my brain was in meltdown mode. But then I'd pout and we'd laugh together, and then we'd go right back into studying. It was a nice way to spend time together, and bond with him... but it wasn't exactly how I had envisioned my anniversary. It was at first... but then Selphie put all those ideas in my head. I blamed her for everything. For making me wish that my 'big' one month meant more than it really did.

* * *

I got to the cafe the next morning where Selphie sat waiting. 

"Rinny!" she excitedly jumped up and pulled me down to the table. "So... how was it?"

"How was what?" I asked, flipping through my bag for a notebook. We still had a while before classes, and although the exams weren't until a whole day later, I always kept notes nearby for studying.

"Duh! Your one month with lover boy!" she exclaimed as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh," I breathed out, shrugging. "That. Like I said, we were just hanging out."

"Doing anything _special_ late at night?" she asked jokingly.

"No," I rolled my eyes. "We just studied for my exams."

She stared at me with her mouth open. "You really are a boring couple," she said with a blank look on her face.

* * *

"Selphie says we're boring," I tattled to Squall later that day. We were at an ice cream shop not too far from the cafe, stopping by for some brain fuel. "She says we're even boringer than Quistis and Seifer. Is 'boringer' even a word?" I asked after a pause. 

"No," he replied with a laugh. I blew at raspberry at him and dug back into my sundae.

"Can that even happen?" he asked out of nowhere, ice cream spoon halfway to his mouth. "I mean... can anyone_ be _any more boring than they are?" I slapped his arm lightly.

"Squall! They're not _boring!_ They're just... _mature._"

"And we're not?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Wait, I take that back. _I'm_ not?"

My jaw dropped (fake-like and jokingly) with ice cream still in it.

"Are you saying I'm immature, mister?" I asked in sort of a mumble. I swallowed after I finished speaking.

"Yeah, I think so," he joked back.

I sat up straight, readying myself for an awesome comeback line... but I couldn't think of one. So I just hit him again.

"You're really good at that, you know that?" he said, rolling his eyes. I could never hit him hard enough to get him to even wince.

"You're mean."

"That's life," he shrugged, finishing up his ice cream. "Are you done yet?"

"No!" I laughed, pulling my sundae away from him as he reached over trying to scoop some. After a few moments of eating, I spoke up again. "Doesn't it bother you that we're considered boring?"

He shrugged again, shaking his head. "Not really. Should it?"

Typical guy. "No... it shouldn't matter too much. It's just..." I frowned, pausing. I wasn't sure how to continue. I did agree with him in a way. It wasn't like it was _that_ bad of a thing.

"Do you _want_ to do more things?" he asked me.

"Well..." again, I paused. It was weird to reply '_Yes! I want to do more!_' when in truth, I was already comfortable the way we were.

"We _can_," he said, sitting up more. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

_Why hadn't I told him?_ I couldn't find an answer to that either. It never really occurred to me that we were boring... it never really mattered that we didn't do everything Selphie and Irvine did. Not until Selphie pointed it out anyway. I shrugged in reply. "Never mind," I said sighed. "We don't need to."

"Rinoa," he said sternly, leaning on the table. "Do you or do you not feel like we need to do more?"

I made a face. It would've been a lot of fun if we had done more. But then it felt stupid to think about answering like that. I felt like I was being put under a hot spotlight to answer a really stupid question.

"Just forget about it, Squall," I said softly, trying to put on a smile. I pushed my sundae cup to the center of the table. It was mostly gone anyway. There was only about half a scoop left. I got up and picked up my purse, reaching for his hand. "Come on, let's go," I said.

He wouldn't budge.

"Rinoa..." he scowled, pulling his hand out of mine and getting up on his own. "Are you feeling insecure about our relationship already?"

"No!" I nearly shouted back almost immediately, glaring at him. He began to walk towards the door. I made a face and ran after him as he got out on the streets. "Hey!"

"Hey what?" he asked, fixing his jacket as he walked. I grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

"What are you getting so worked up about?" I asked him irritably.

"Nothing," he answered. He didn't even try to hide the bit of anger that showed on his face though. "There's nothing to be mad about."

He began to walk off again. Once again I had to grab him by the arm and pull him back.

"Squall!" I cried, making him face me. "I told you, I'm not insecure about our relationship!"

"Who said anything about that?" he asked. "Heaven forbid we have a healthy relationship."

"Squall, that was uncalled for," I asked, spitting out whatever was on the top of my head. "You know every relationship has its disagreements at first. Our relationship is just f-"

"We were together for years Rin," he said, beginning to walk again. "_Years._ I think - or at least _thought_ - we got over our troubles already. Apparently not."

"Squall!" I called to him, running to catch up. "We_ are _over our troubles!"

"Then why are you insecure?"

"I'm no-"

"You are," he said, stopping and facing me. I stopped just before running into him. "You are. You never answer that fast after a guilty conversation. You feel insecure about us."

I stood there, not knowing out to respond. I shook my head and opened my mouth, but nothing came out. The only thing that came out were little pools of tears that were forming in my eyes. _Only a month had passed... how could this already happen?_

"Just go, Rinoa," he said as he walked to the nearby subway station. "I'll see you later."

* * *

It was only halfway through the day. I still had classes left to go to and errands to get done. Halfway through the day, and my day was _already_ like crap. I managed to finish up my day without a problem though, allowing myself to be engulfed by the work. I took notes in class, though they never really sank into my head. My professors' lectures and recommendations for our exams all went in one ear and out my right hand. I did everything asked of me blankly, not entirely paying attention but still getting it done correctly. I couldn't focus at all, and skipped out on the usual group meeting at the cafe, walking home instead. 

I was alone. For the first time in weeks - _months_ - I walked home alone. I always walked with Squall or Selphie or Quistis, or all of them, including Seifer and Irvine. But for the first time, I walked home alone. I found myself wrapped in work again, hoping to push Squall to the back of my mind.

I cleaned the house, did _all_ of my homework early (for once) and even ordered myself Chinese food that I sat down and watched TV with. Unfortunately, nothing stayed in my mind. What happened on _Lost_ that night? I don't remember. What did I order for dinner? Something edible and rice. What classes did I take and have homework in? I'd have to check my schedule. Why couldn't Squall and I just say those words that would've made everything better? _I'm sorry._

I went to bed still numb from the day. I was exhausted, but sleep took forever to come. I always told myself to never get too wrapped up with a guy. I always told myself that whatever happened, I wouldn't devote myself to a man and revolve my world around him. I was going to be an independent woman, and also manage my relationship. I didn't need a man to live my life. We could live together, without getting clingy and think of each other 24-hours a day. I told myself that when we split, I wouldn't cry and weep over him - he was just a boy.

I lied. I was wrong. I was lost.

* * *

The alarm clock rang the next morning at eight. I pushed myself out of bed and went through my usual routine for the morning. I purposely hurried through it though, and ate an extra small breakfast consisting of an apple so that I could get out of my apartment and down to my classes without running into anyone I knew. _It didn't work._

On my way down the stairs, I ran smack into Selphie.

"Rinoa!" she exclaimed as our books and papers flew through the air. "What's the hurry?"

I shook my head as we collected out books, not sure how to answer. "Nothing, Selph. I just... need to get going. I'll see you around!" I waved and walked around her, trying to speed down the stairs once again.

"Rinny!" she called after me, grabbing my arm before I could get very far. "Rin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said calmly, trying to shake her hand off of my arm. "I'm just running a bit behind today."

"I'm here twenty minutes earlier than usual," she said to me worriedly. "Rinny, what's wrong?

"I'm fine," I insisted. I finally got my arm from her and stepped down a single stair. "I'll see you around, okay?"

"Will you be at the cafe today?" she asked before I could speed off.

"I don't know. We'll see. It depends on how much work my teachers decide to give me," I lied to her. It was only a little white lie. I wasn't going to get homework. It was the day of my exams; I wouldn't have gotten anything.

She nodded and finally let me go. I waved as I hopped quickly from step to step.

"Rinoa, Squall was looking for you yesterday!" she called down from above. I looked up at her trying to keep a blank face, though I could feel myself slowly frowning. She stared down at me as well, not moving from her step on the stairs. "He seemed worried. Tell me what's going on later... okay?"

I nodded (even though she probably couldn't even see me), and walked on. When I pushed the door to the street open, I ran into yet another person, though my books didn't scatter.

"Ah! Sorry!" I apologized as I recomposed myself. I looked up at the person and immediately shut up.

Squall's blue eyes looked down on me, cold yet caring. He opened his mouth to speak, but I put my hand up to stop him.

"I have to get going," I said to him softly, and brushed by him like he was just any old person on the street. I ran quickly down the street and to my classes, disregarding my feelings. If he had run after me, I wouldn't have known. I never once looked back.

Throughout the day, I felt like someone was watching me everywhere I went. I could never tell _where_ it was coming from, but I could definitely feel the stare that pierced through the book shelves and watched me pull the third book from the left out. Despite our situation, I was sure it wasn't Squall. Squall never stared at _anyone_, much less follow someone around. I knew him for too long. I knew exactly what his eyes felt like when they were on me.

I hurried home at the end of the day, not even bothering to stop by the cafe. Even if I didn't have exams, I wouldn't have gone near the place. I had a feeling that Squall would've been there. Had it been any other boy, I wouldn't have cared less. But it was Squall, and there was something about the fact that we had fought that I couldn't get over. I couldn't see him right away.

Even while I walked the streets I felt like I was being followed. Once I got near my building though, the feeling seemed to disappear. I walked to my door and found someone waiting for me by my door.

"We need to talk."

I nodded. "Yeah."

I opened the door to my apartment and led the way in, dropping off my books and bags in my bedroom and setting out some drinks in the kitchen.

"I heard about what happened."

"How?" I asked. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Not really," she said. "I sort of figured it out."

I half sighed, half laughed. "I should've known. You _are_ our resident genius."

She shrugged in reply, taking a sip out of the cup of orange juice I had set down in front of her.

I took a seat across from her as well. "So what've you figured out so far?"

"You two got in a fight," she said, setting down the cup. "And both feel guilty, because it was probably something small."

I nodded. She was right so far.

"There's not much else to figure out, is there?"

"No," I sighed. "Not really."

"But you're having a hard time dealing with it, right?"

"Yeah." I paused. "You know, I was thinking that I'd be pouring my heart out to you about how horrible our situation is... Squall and I haven't fought in _years!_ Then again, we weren't together for a while too... but still, I never thought we'd have an argument just like that, you know?"

She nodded along with me, and listened as I ranted for about five minutes.

"I guess it just... shocked me that we could still fight, and we could feel insecurities in our relationship. I guess... I felt that we weren't as close as we used to be or something, and that made him think that I didn't trust him anymore. But then, neither of us said the right things and in the end, it all... fell." I dropped my hands in a falling action, and looked back up at Quistis. "Wait... that's not right. Hang on..."

"You really would have a hard time living without me, wouldn't you?" she joked. I laughed and winced a bit.

"This isn't exactly the best time to crack a joke, you know."

"You needed it," she said with a smile. "You really just needed to face the facts and admit it. Not talking to anyone just made you bottle up all those nerves of yours. Come back to the cafe tomorrow and meet up with Squall. You've already told me everything, right?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Then come to the cafe tomorrow," she said with a shrug. "That was the only thing that was holding you back. You'll see. Tomorrow you'll both be fine."

I smiled at her. I didn't like the idea of seeing him much. But she _was_ the resident genius after all, and she and Seifer seemed to be working out just perfectly. "How do you know?"

"I took psychology in high school," she said with a shrug. "I'm surprising myself as well. I haven't told you at all about the brain activities or anything."

I stared at her. "You're not going to lecture me about my emotional hormones and whatnots are you?"

"Would you like me to?"

"No."

* * *

I didn't believe her at first, but Quistis was right. We talked for a while longer before she left. I tried to explain my situation to her, though I didn't know it too well myself. Afterwards though, I didn't feel the urge to bury myself in work anymore, and I found myself thinking about Squall rather than avoiding him. I thought about all the different ways that I could tell him I was sorry, to apologize if I made him feel terrible... it was all I thought about for hours. I had a whole conversation planned out by the time I ate dinner - I knew Squall too well. I knew exactly what he was going to say. I liked to pretend that I did anyway. 

I was laying on my bed reading, even though I wasn't entirely focused. My mind still switched to Squall every ten minutes, my hand held piece of pizza and my mouth took a bite every so often. Usually I was the ultimate multitasker, but I wasn't so that night. The phone rang just as I finished my pizza.

I pushed myself off of my bed and washed my hands quickly in the sink before walking to the living room and picking up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello princess..." an eerily sweet voice answered back.

My bad stiffened. "Who is this?" I asked. "What do you want?"

"Is this how you answer the phone? What terrible habits. What makes you think I want something from you?"

I winced at the sugar coated tone the man on the other line used. "Who are you!" I asked loudly into the phone.

The voice only laughed cruelly back. "It doesn't matter... are you scared angel? You sound so scared to me..."

My heart was beating quicker by the minute. My breathing was shallow and loud, and I could no longer hide the fear. _The eyes... someone was following me..._

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why won't you answer me and leave me alone?"

The voice chuckled again. "It doesn't matter angel... all that matters is you and your little prince charming... _Squally_, right?"

I breathed in sharply.

"What, did you think I didn't watch you, angel?" he continued to mock me.

"You freak..." I whispered into the phone. "You're insane! You need help-"

"Your little boyfriend might be the one who needs help tonight, angel... tell him to watch his back," he hissed back.

His statement sent chills down my spine. "Stop calling me. Leave me alone!"

I hung up on him and slammed the phone on to its cradle. My hand hovered over the phone. _Tell him to watch his back..._

I couldn't get the caller off of my mind. I still had no idea who it was, but it bothered me more than anything. It was clear that the psycho stalker caller was more than just a caller... _the eyes that followed me_.

I picked up the phone and quickly dialed Squall's number.

"Come on... pick up the phone, Squall... pick up pick up..." I mumbled as it connected and rang. It took at least four rings before he finally picked up.

"Hello?" his deep, lazy voice answered.

"Squall!" I exclaimed. I took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, calming myself. He was okay.

"Rinoa?" he asked, suddenly confused. "What's wrong?"

"I--" I paused. I couldn't just tell him. Not on the phone. "Nothing's... really _wrong_. Squall, don't worry about _me_."

"Do you want me to go ov-"

"No!" I yelled at him before I realized he had no idea what was going on. "No," I said more calmly. "I... stay put, Squall. I just... I'll be over in a bit, okay?"

"Rinoa, what's going on?"

"I don't know," I told him half-truthfully. "But I need to be there with you. Right now."

"Okay," he said softly into the phone. "I'll be waiting."

* * *

**A/N:** I swear, I was thinking about the fluff that I promised you. ... but I change my mind. X I can't let this story run on forever. Then it's just... _bad_. Stories kind of lose their magic if you let them run on for too long, you know? So there's probably about one or two more chapters of fluffy stuffs and filler, and that's it. I apologize on how strangely written this chapter is. o.O I tried my best. 

**Notes:  
**1 - _"You're such a boring couple, you know that?"_ - inspired by me and my friends. Maybe other people do it too. I don't know. This is like a daily conversation between me and my best friends. We have a way of communicating with each other using insults and sarcasm. For example.. "My _god_ this book is boring!" "_You're_ boring." Many other parts of the dialogue in this chapter are inspired by us as well. Like the unnecessary offerings of explanations, blunt replies of "no" and the random jokes at inappropriate times.  
2 - _Rinoa's apartment _- Hmm... has anyone watched _Beautiful People_ on ABC Family before? I loved the show while it was on. Don't ask me why. xD It wasn't even realistic for the most part. Anyway, I fell in love with their apartment. It was so cute... so think that if you would like a visualization.


	14. The Coming Together

**A/N:** Thank you for the reviews! Getting reviews like that always make my day. Even though is poo and reset the counter. xx It now says I have only 3 hits. So sad. Anyway, I'm also, I'm glad to hear that you guys liked the last chapter and the narration in it! It all derives from the never-depressing conversations that I always have. It's good to know we bring humor to other peoples' lives. xD Haha. So thank you for all the reviews - I hope you continue to enjoy the story! It's okay to criticize. Really, it is.

_Rainy Days_ - Chapter 12 - **Standard disclaimers apply**

PS - rating for this chapter _may_ go up to a T, depending on your maturity level. I don't think anyone that immature reads this _anyway_, but just in case.

* * *

I ran to Squall's as fast as I could. We lived on opposite ends of the city - I lived in the heart of the city and he lived out by the suburbs. Even though it was nearing 10 o'clock, I had caught the last bus to the train station, rode a nearly empty cart on the train - and everything _still_ seemed unreasonably slow. The buses seemed to take forever to load, and seemed to stop at every stop sign and stop light. The train, though practically empty, seemed slower than its usual speed. And even though it was already dark to begin with, it seemed to get **darker** by the time I got to his apartment. The rain that was originally like a mist when I left the house turned into a shower by the time I had arrived at the first train station, and poured by the time I reached Squall's apartment. Everything in the world seemed to want to slow me down.

Or maybe it was just my panic, and sudden urge to see him.

I rang his doorbell at least five times within the three seconds I stood in front of his door, and knocked on the door a couple of times. I probably bothered his neighbors more than anything.

When he finally got the door open, he had a slight scowl on his face.

"Rin, you know I'm home. You didn't have to-" he stopped mid-sentence, his mouth dropping into a worried frown. He sighed and pulled me into the living room. He walked to a closet and pulled out some towels and blankets.

"You only had to ring the doorbell once," he said as he helped me dry off. "I would've heard it."

I closed my eyes as he wiped off my face and pulled a blanket over my shoulders. I shrugged. "Sorry," I said softly.

"It's okay," he said, wiping my wet bangs from my eyes. "Don't worry about it."

He smiled gently at me, and I smiled back, pulling him into a hug. He scooted over and sat down next to me.

"Do you want to change into some of my clothes?" he asked. "They'll be big on you, but you'll be dry at least."

I smiled, but shook my head. "It's alright. I think I'll be okay."

I sat down on a towel so that I wouldn't get his couch wet, and turned on the TV. We watched it for a while as I dried off. He waited patiently for me to say something about why I came over at 10 o'clock at night. He didn't push me or anything; he just sat there with me the entire time.

Finally, after finishing up some late-night show on TV, I turned it off. It was 12:30. I sat up and pulled my legs up on the couch comfortably.

"Dry yet?" he asked, tugging at my hair and sleeves.

I chuckled. "A bit," I shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'm always wet. You know that."

"Yeah," he winced. "You're insane."

"Yeah, but you love me," I said jokingly, punching his arm. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

We laughed, hitting each other with pillows and defending with blankets. It didn't last very long though, as I let out a sneeze. Squall stopped immediately, dropping his couch pillows and feeling my forehead.

"I'm fine!" I waved him off. "I didn't come all the way down here to have you take care of me."

He frowned, keeping his eyes on me.

"I came down here to take care of you," I said softly, dropping my eyes. I didn't know what I was planning to do to tell him. But I wasn't planning on telling him while he was still worried.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked, bending down to see my eyes. There was no more laughter or sarcasm.

"There's nothing wrong with you," I shook my head. "I don't think." I took his hands in mine, placing one by my cheek and the other interlocking fingers with my own. "I love you, Squall. I really do."

He tilted his head, the worried expression growing evermore. Confusion also sat in his eyes, as he had no idea what was going on. It was obvious it was bad though. Squall and I always cared for each other. We always knew it too. But we never used words like, 'I love you' freely. They were always special words that were used only during special occasions. They were used jokingly at times, but they were really only used seriously at times like when one of us was leaving for a long period of time, or for a special anniversary between just the two of us... or when something was wrong. It was basically a big hint to the both of us that there was really something that we seriously needed to discuss.

"Do you remember that phone call I got?" I asked him, moving his hands down. Both of our hands sat by my lap, fingers intertwined. My eyes flickered from the hands to his eyes and back down again.

"Which one?"

"The creepy one..."

He straightened. "The psycho one?"

"Yeah," I nodded, sighing. "Did I ever tell you that they stopped? I figured, 'Alright, the crazy guy finally found someone else's number to call!' Life was nice without those weird calls." I chucked bitterly. "But then we got into that fight a couple days ago..."

Squall looked away. "About that-"

"Don't be sorry," I told him. "Really. I think we needed it. It's not healthy to be perfect."

He smiled and nodded. I could tell he was still confused about what I was talking about.

"Life was a bit weird.."

"Weird?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, weird," I laughed a bit at my choice of wording. "There was the whole... avoiding you thing..."

He raised his eyebrows again and mumbled, "Comforting..." under his breath, but said nothing else.

"And then... you know how you get that creeped out feeling when someone's watching you? It kind of prickles the hair on the back of your neck?" I asked. He nodded. "I walked around town for the entire day today with that feeling. It was weird... and when I got home, it stopped. But a few hours later, someone called and..."

"... and it was the psycho, right?" he asked softly. "He followed you, didn't he?"

"I think so..." My fingers held tight to his and my eyes never left him.

Squall shook his head. "I can't believe..."

"That's... not the whole story," I cut in.

"There's more?"

I nodded. "There's more." I took a deep breath. "He... gave me... a... okay, I don't know how to say this, so I guess I'll call it a threat-"

"He _threatened_ you? What the hell!"

"Well..." I paused, not entirely sure how to say it kindly. "Not really..."

"What do you mean-"

"You," I said softly, but sternly. "He threatened... you. Which in a way, also threatens me."

Squall froze. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "He threatened me? Because I'm your boyfriend?"

"Yeah," I whispered. "Because I love you. When he said something about tonight and you and... I couldn't just _ignore_ that!"

Squall scratched his head, eyebrows furrowed.

"Our lives are crazy, aren't they?"

He shrugged. "Maybe we're supposed to live like soaps once in a while."

I laughed, nodding. "Maybe..."

As my laughter died, the dark mood returned. I tried to keep my smile up as long as I could, but it didn't last for more than 30 seconds. I watched as he ran his thumb over my hands. He slowly pulled me into a hug, kissing me gently.

"I'm sorry it has to be now."

"That's life."

I tried to crack a bit of a smile, but it fell almost immediately. All of my thoughts piled together. It was like a movie or drama... stalkers were the _last_ thing I had ever thought I'd encounter in life. Money problems, rocky dead ends with no home... maybe. Stalkers... definitely _not._

"You spending the night then?" he asked.

"What?" I snapped out of my daydream - or dream, depending on how you looked at it. "... yeah, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah," he nodded. "It's fine." He bent down and buried his head in my neck, kissing me and leading us to his bedroom. I kissed him back deeply, hoping that coming over would help change whatever fate was intended for him.

* * *

We slept in the next day, missing out on at least half the day.

"Morning sunshine," Squall whispered as I turned over in bed.

I let out a moan. "What time is it?"

"Late," he laughed. "I don't know. The sun's up though."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Damn," I started to sit up, pulling the covers with me. "It's cold..."

"It's winter," he said blatantly, sitting up with me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "Did you expect it to be warm?"

"First of all," I said, poking his chest like a drunk women, "It is _not_ winter - it's the dead of _autumn._ Winter is not for another _two weeks._ And second of all..."

I poked him again. He rolled out of bed to get dressed. I fell over on to the bed, not wanting to move on my own.

"Don't you have a heater in this building?"

"Yeah, but it sucks."

"Great."

He threw a sweater at my head as I got up to follow him out of the room. I put it on, shivering at the touch of the cold, wooden floors.

"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I can cook if yo-"

"You?" he turned, looking at me as if I was insane. "Rin, no offense, but you're not the best cook."

"So?" My arms were crossed to keep myself warm. "Why can't I practice?"

He shook his head, chuckling. "Cereal it is..."

"I can cook better than-"

"I'm just kidding," he said, opening the doors of several cupboards. "You'll have a full meal. Maybe." He started mixing things together. I sat down by the counter and leaned my neck over to observe.

"How is it you can cook, and I can't?"

"Skill."

I glared at him. "Thanks, Squall."

He smiled a bit and returned to focusing on the food, pouring milk into the bowl.

"I lived through the night," he said calmly.

I nodded. "Yeah, I noticed."

"I thought you'd be happier about it," he continued, pouring some pancake batter on a hot pan.

I stared, the statement not entirely clicking in my mind. The fact that he knew exactly what he was doing without looking up anything put me in complete awe. "It's not fair... why can't I cook?"

"Maybe it's in your genes," he shrugged.

"Liar." I stuck my tongue at him when he turned to put the bowl by the sink behind him.

He only shrugged on reply. I sighed and put my head on the counter. There was a silence as he flipped the pancakes over.

"It's not that I'm not relieved about it," I said quietly as his words finally sunk in.

He looked up at me. "About what?"

"The whole... you living through the night thing. I'm quite happy, really... it's just..." I drifted off. What was it?

"Is there something else you haven't told me?"

"No!" I exclaimed. I told him pretty much everything I knew. "I just... don't feel like it's over. The guy _stalked_ me, Squall. For _months_ for all we know. I mean, the calls started coming in not too long after you came here. How long has it been? You've been here for at least a semester now. How does it just... **stop** like that?"

He flipped all of the pancakes once more, and put them on plates, putting them over on the small table nearby.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. I walked over and sat down next to him, leaning my head on him again. He kissed me at the top of my head and handed me a fork. "Don't worry about it."

I poked at the pancakes and frowned.

"You suck."

"Just eat."

By the late afternoon (or early evening...), I figured that Squall would be okay on his own, so I decided to go home - not after making him promise to stay inside for the rest of the day, and to watch his back for a while. I had borrowed his shorts and shirt over the night, so my clothes had dried. He insisted that I at least still wear one of his shirts though, in case my shirt was still damp. I rolled my eyes at the idea, but wore it anyway, tying the shirt so it wasn't so big on me.

"You look cute in my clothes," he said as I put on my shoes at the door.

I smiled and pinched his nose, giggling. "Flirt."

He shrugged and kissed my cheek. He had insisted on taking me home in his car, but I insisted that he stayed home. He eventually gave in, though he wasn't very happy with it. As I went home, the strange feeling of being watched was gone. But at the back of my mind, something was still irritating me... and it wouldn't go away.

* * *

Naturally, the weekend too soon. We all had to go back to classes as Monday rolled around once again. I was tempted to tell Squall to fake being sick so he didn't have to leave his room, but I soon realized how stupid it sounded. Not only did it make me sound beyond paranoid, but no one would see him anyway, so what would be the point of making him stay inside? The thought was just... stupid.

At the end of the day, I sat with Quistis and Selphie at our usual table at the cafe. We were always early because the guys were... well, guys. Waiting for them made me feel almost sick though, worry poured through my body. I twisted and twirled my napkin so much that it was no longer distinguishable.

"Rinny, I think you're done," Selphie said, putting her hand over the napkins and shaking her head. "I don't know what you're so worked up about. I mean, I know about the whole... stalker dude thing, but I just saw Squall this morning in history. He's fine."

"That was this morning, Selphie," I said attempting to sound stern. My voice was (needlessly) shaky. I nodded towards the clock hanging on the wall. "Key word: _morning_. It's five now - it's been _hours!_ Something could've happened between then and now."

"You do realize the chances of that, right?" Quistis said in her most practical tone. "Rinoa, you're over-reacting."

"Am I?"

"Yeah, really," Selphie said with a smile. "The guys see him all day. If anything, Irvy probably helped take care of him."

I sighed. But I was still worried. Was it so wrong? _Maybe..._

Luckily, seconds later Irvine and Seifer walked in with Squall right there between them, laughing and hooting. A weight was instantly lifted from my shoulders.

"See, I told you you had nothing to worry about," Selphie smiled, patting my shoulder.

The guys were still laughing as they sat down. All three calmed down in just a few moments though and leaved over to kiss us a hello in some form or another, seemingly forgetting their earlier conversation.

"And how are our beautiful ladies today?" Irvine asked in his flirty voice. He pressed his face against Selphie's cheek. "Hmm? Good?"

She giggled like a little girl and nodded.

"Well..." she'd usually say, trying to sound cool. She never pulled it off very well though, even though she had done it every day for the past thousands of years (figuratively speaking of course). "You know, the usual." Irvine would them smile and kiss her, and they'd get all giggly as the rest of us rolled our eyes.

However, this time her answer ended up being, "Oh you know... Quistis is remodeling her room, I had to go help find her perfect shade of blue and Rinoa's being paranoid."

At the mention of me, my head snapped up and my eyes bulged. _Thanks Selphie..._

Irvine smiled and kissed her cheek, but they didn't get all giggly like they usually did. Apparently, he had caught it. Everyone else seemed quiet too. Evidently, they had caught on as well, despite the fact that she had said it so fast and casually. If you were multitasking and weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have caught it. It sounded just like _'Rinoa got a new skirt,' _but it was _'Rinoa' paranoid_' instead.

"Rinoa, you're not back on that call, are you?" Squall asked. "It's been a couple of days, I doubt they were being serious."

I groaned in frustration. No one else seemed to be taking the threat like I was. It made me worry that I was thinking too much into it; perhaps I was sizing it up to be bigger than it really was.

"No," I half lied. "I think I'm done with that now."

I forced a small smile at everyone and took a big gulp out of my mug. They were all so quiet. I heard Squall sighing from beside me, probably looking everyone in the eyes telling them to drop it. I put my mug down and sat up tall again, smiling as genuinely as possible as I changed the topic.

"So Quisty," I started. "When did you decide to remodel and why wasn't I made aware of it?"

"This weekend," she said, flipping through a furniture magazine that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Seifer had probably hidden it in his back pocket or something though. It wasn't as though we were all paying attention. "I tried calling you, but you never picked up. Where were you?"

"Why didn't you just leave a message?" I asked her.

"I hate leaving messages, you know that," she said as she flipped her hair out of her face. "I got Selphie to call a few times too, and you still didn't pick up. Combined, we must've called over a dozen times."

"But I was home yesterday," I said, scratching my head. "Did you call?"

"Yeah," Selphie cut in. "I think I called at least 6 times. I gave up after that though."

I paused, thinking. Why hadn't I heard the phone? "What time did you call me?"

"Some time in the afternoon. Why?"

I thought for a moment more before smiling and laughing at myself. "Oh, I was at Squall's this weekend. That's probably why."

"This _entire_ weekend?" Quistis asked in shock. "I swear I called you at like nine, and you still didn-"

"Was it Saturday night?" I asked, almost not wanting to say anything. "After you gave me your whole speech that afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I spent the night there," I said sheepishly. "Sorry about that..."

"Why don't you carry around your cell phone like normal people?"

"I forgot it?" I didn't even know where my cell phone was at the moment. I switched my purses around often, so it was in one of them. I'd probably have to call myself to find it.

She rolled her eyes in a very Quistis-like manner. Probably something she learned from Seifer though.

"So," Seifer cut in with a cough. "Did Squall here get some... ahem, _action_ this weekend?" he asked, wagging his eyebrows.

He and Irvine burst out laughing together while Squall only smiled cryptically. My jaw dropped as I realized what they were talking about. I stiffened and smacked Squall as fast and hard, and as many times as I possibly could.

"What did you tell them?" I asked, smacking him by the word. He only laughed and looked at me, half in disbelief, half in humor.

"I didn't say anything!" he exclaimed. "Really! Not a word!"

I opened my mouth to retort, but Seifer cut me off.

"Yeah, but actions speak louder than words!" he exclaimed, he and Irvine doubling over in laughter once again.

My jaw dropped even more if it was possible, and I smacked Squall again for the umpteenth time.

"What did you do!"

"Nothing!"

"Is this a confession?" Irvine laughed, sticking his head in. "Did Rinoa go over just for some special _something_?"

"No!" I half-yelled back. I was held back by the fact that we were in a public place. "It's not like we sat there and _planned_ it or something, it just-" I cut myself off. I put my elbows on the table and hid behind my hands. "I can't believe I'm even having this conversation!"

I heard Selphie and Quistis striking and scorning Irvine and Seifer.

"Irvy! Stop being such a pervert!"

"It's their private lives! You're not supposed to butt in, you idiot!"

All three boys had guilty, yet amused, grins on their faces.

There was a silence. Suddenly, one of the guys (otherwise known as Seifer) cracked up.

"Was it good?" There was a smack. My arm shot out, blocking Squall.

"**_Don't_ **answer that," I said sternly.

* * *

"I can't believe you talk about our sex life with your friends," I said in disbelief as I wiped rain water from my eyes. Squall was walking me home an hour later. People were staring as we continued our insane debate (if you could it that). Apparently it wasn't as big of a deal for the three tough guys.

"Why not?" he asked as though it was something they talked about every day.

"Why not? _Why not?_" I nearly shrieked. "Squall, those things are _private_ for a reason!"

"Rinoa, we're men," he continued as though it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Talking about the latest fashion trends and how to find a deal on new Gucci shoes isn't exactly something we're good at."

I rubbed my temples with one hand while trying to figure out which key was which with my other. "So you talk about your sex life instead? I mean, come on now Squall..."

"Rinoa - again, we're men."

"Guys are stupid," I said, opening the door. He followed me in and collapsed on the couch all the while turning on the TV and grabbing a magazine.

"We're not stupid; we're honest."

I rolled my eyes and looked around the kitchen for something to eat.

"Besides," he continued. "It's not like they don't do it either. And I don't talk about us often or anything."

"Good to know," I said with fake cheerfulness. "I'll have to remember to tell Quistis and Selphie later on..."

"What?" he asked, as I had mumbled the last bit to myself.

"Nothing," I said, smiling strangely again. "You're imagining things."

He glanced over at me with a sort of smile on his face - the kind that's not really there. When someone's really just _looking_ at you, but they have this faint trace of a smile on their face. It looked absolutely adorable on Squall.

"You want me to cook tonight?" he asked me.

"No," I answered from the refrigerator. "I'm paying you back. If I have enough ingredients. I hope."

I turned to sort of dive into the fridge, digging through it hoping to find all my carrots and peas and whatnot. I found some ingredients - but I was still missing others. I bit my lip. I needed a cook book - _fast._ Just to see what I could make with what I had.

"You okay?" Squall asked. He had gotten up and was standing in the doorframe of the kitchen entrance.

"Yeah, I think so." I scratched my head. What was I going to do? I didn't want to order out...

"Do you want some help?" he asked.

"No... no, don't. Go watch a football game or whatever you guys do," I said with a laugh. He glanced over my shoulder to see what I was doing, but I pushed him out as soon as I could.

"Hey now," I said as I ushered him to the couch. "No peeking. You know what they say about seeing things early..."

He rolled his eyes. "That's only a bride. Food is an entirely different thing."

"Squall..." I whined. "Let me cook..."

"Only if you let me go buy stuff for you..." he said back in the same tone, mocking me.

I made a face, but didn't say anything about it. "What stuff?"

"Rin, there's no way you're going to making a meal out of what you have in there right now," he said, shaking his head.

"Oh yeah?" I challenged him.

"Yeah," he said, getting up. "Tell you what - I'll run down to the market right now, grab you some fish, meat, _something_ that'll feed me-"

"You?"

"I'm a guy, I need meat." I laughed at his reply. He continued on with his list. "Chicken, whatever you women eat. I'll be back in half an hour. Give or take ten minutes."

"And what am I supposed to do?" I asked, crossing my arms. I tried to be stern, but I couldn't help but smile.

"You," he said, kissing my cheek. "Will hop in the shower, make yourself pretty and nice smelling for me, and will cook me my meal when I get back."

I smiled and gave in. "Alright... but you have half an hour. That's it. If you don't come back by then, I'm sending the SWAT team after you."

"Got it," he said as he put his coat and shoes on. He bent down and kissed me deeply. "I'll be back soon. Look pretty."

I smiled. "I'll try. Be careful!" I added as he left.

"What's the worse that can happen?"

"Squall!"

He turned and smiled at me, nodding and mouthing, 'don't worry!' before running down the staircase. I sighed and leaned against the doorframe. I had told him earlier that I _was_ over the caller... but it still bothered me. And even though he was so confident about leaving and whatnot, I wasn't. I felt like something was wrong. I shrugged it off though.

I showered and powdered myself, just as he told me to do. I pulled out his favorite dress of mine - even if it was overly fancy for a home made dinner - and earrings that he bought me on our first anniversary. During my shower, I had apparently missed a few calls. It wasn't until nearly an hour after Squall left that I realized what I had missed.

* * *

**A/N:** How was it? Do let me know! The pretty purple review button is calling you. It really is. I really want to at least _try_ to hit 10 reviews in a single chapter by the time this story is completed. The most I've gotten in a chapter is 9 reviews. _So close!_ Can you help me reach my goal? Oh please, oh please, oh _pleaseeee_... xD

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! This chapter's long-ish (lately they all have been), but only because there's a lot of talking involved. It's _completely_ filled with dialogue, but I figured, hey... why not? It's reaching near the end anyway. Normally I'd probably write a whole lot more about how school is poo and how I have little time for writing, but I can't. I have a research paper's outline and thesis due in 2 days (in which I haven't actually completed the research yet)! Must get going! Next planned update is sometime over Christmas/New Years break. I'm hoping to finish up the story in the next chapter, and possibly start a new story later on in the year. I've revised my profile - it now includes a list of ideas I have for a story (AKA weird dreams that I've had that I want to make into a story). Let me know if there's one you especially like or look forward to!


	15. The Accidental End

**A/N:** I so did not forget to update this winter break. I've just been to busy to write. xD Not really. It was a minor writer's block. I hate knowing what to write, but not knowing how to put it into words. Anyway, so here we are - chapter 14! Thank you for all of the reviews for the last chapter! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas (or I suppose _holiday, _to be politically correct), and have a wonderful new year! Winter break went by _way_ too fast!

Oh, and quick warning before beginning... this chapter - _drama. Drama, drama, drama..._ and tear jerker if you're sensitive. Nice and juicy and overly dramatized, just like the movies. Haha! It was _so _hard to write this. Kind of funny how that works out. End warning... please enjoy!

* * *

"Did you wait long, sleepyhead?" his gentle voice whispered in my ear. 

Hazily, I shook my head. I lips turned up for a half-second, a breif smile while trying to be stern. "Took you long enough."

He took me by the hand, leading me out the door. "Come on," he beckoned. It was still raining out. He quickly pulled me down the staircase and out to the empty streets by my building.

We laughed together as we ran around in the rain, chasing each other and splashing each other by jumping into various puddles. We were both soaked within minutes, but stayed out in the rain anyway. Finally, after at least half an hour of playing in the rain, he pulled me into an undercover area. He kissed me, smiling as he did it.

It would've been the best moment of my life. I should've smiled back, giggling shyly. I should've kissed him again, and dragged him back into the rain and danced my heart out. All of it... it's what _should've_ happened to begin with.

But it wasn't what happened. Fate had forgotten to take driver's ed.

I was in my room. My curling iron was plugged in, my make up was scattered all over my dresser, random articles of clothing were scattered all over my bed. I was completely oblivious to the five billion phone calls that were coming in. I was distracted only by the doorbell that rang. Someone had come. I had been hoping that it was Squall. By the time I reached the door, I had a nagging feeling it wasn't.

An impatient Quistis stood at the door with Seifer standing behind her, his usual half-arrogant stance absent from the scene.

"It's about time," she said quietly, pushing me back into the house. She ran around the house, turning off things, blowing out candles and apparently looking for proper clothes.

"We've been calling you for ages," she said as she organized things. "Where were you?"

"I was taking a shower," I stated. "What's the rush?"

"They called my place first," Seifer said cryptically as he shut the door behind him. "They must've thought we roomed together or something..."

Quistis waved her hand, cutting him off. "Squall's at the hospital," she continued. She threw my jacket towards me. "Get dressed."

I sat, frozen in shock. "What?" I asked, shaking the fuzziness from my head. _I must've been dreaming..._

"Rinoa, get dressed," she repeated firmly. "You'll freeze out there. Come on, quickly!"

She and Seifer each grabbed one of my arms and led me to my room. I changed into whatever it was she threw into my hands and ran out the door with them. Seifer drove as fast as he possibly could - at least 10 miles over the speed limit. Each red light felt as though it took 10 minutes to change. Finding a parking space was absolute hell. I didn't even bother sticking around to find out where he parked the car. Quistis and I jumped out of the car before he even pulled into the parking lot.

"We'll meet you inside!" Quistis yelled back to him as she led me through the hospital doors.

The elevator once again took for ever as we went up one, two, three... maybe four floors.

"Why the hell is he on the forth floor?" I questioned stressfully. "Isn't emergency _first_ floor?"

"I told you, you didn't answer the phone," Quistis reminded me, her voice very stressed. "It's been at least an hour, maybe two since the accident. Didn't you realize he was missing?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but she seemed to have read my mind.

"He went home with you Rin," she tilted her head at me as she spoke. We walked out the opening doors of the elevator. "He went home with you... when we got there, you had candles lit and a meal half prepared. Not to mention you don't ever wear that much make up and curl you hair for no reason."

We turned the corner and ran into Selphie and Irvine. I raised my eyebrows. What were Irvine and Selphie doing here? And why did they know what was going on before me? Why was _I_ left in the dark?

"Thank god, you're finally here!" Selphie exclaimed as she jumped up. She ran over and gave me a hug. _What're they not telling me?_

"It's going to be okay, Rin..." she said comfortingly. "Just because we haven't heard anything yet doesn't mean anything."

I shook my head, tearing up a bit. I was in a hospital and Squall was here. My instincts knew from the very start that _something_ was wrong. But no one told me _anything_.

"What's going _on?_" I cried. "What _is _all of this?"

"You were supposed to explain it to her in the car!" Selphie hissed at Quistis.

"Do you think I had time to?" Quistis retorted. "We made it here in record time!"

"I told you," she said as she turned to me. "There's been an accident."

I shook my head again, trying to clear it. It didn't help at all. "Okay... _and?_"

"And _what?_" Quistis groaned exasperatingly. She was no longer the firm and strong minded woman I knew. Her once confident voice wavered, her patience paper thin. "And your boyfriend got hit, that's what!"

Irvine smacked his forehead with his palm as Selphie made a face.

"Okay... that works I guess..." she mumbled. She slowly lowered me into a chair, sitting down next to me. Quistis collapsed next to me as well. Seifer walked in from behind us and stood next to Irvine.

"Squall's been hit by a car..." I repeated. I knew exactly what it meant. I put on a smile and scoffed at her even though more tears had made their way into my eyes. "You're joking, right? You're just hiding him somewhere and using Quistis's internship or something to bring me here, right?"

Quistis groaned. "Rinoa, look at the rain out there!" she exclaimed, pointing at the window blurred by downpour. Her eyebrows burrowed together and her lips formed a frustrating frown. "The driver was probably blind, Squall was out on the street... bam! It happened!"

She jumped up as she was explaining. Seifer quickly held her shoulder, holding her back and calming her down. She seemed to get her senses back at his touch.

I was silent. My lips pursed together as I tried not to cry. "Why didn't he stay in his car?" I asked quietly.

"He didn't have his car, remember?" Selphie answered gently. "We all headed home from the cafe. He walked to your place."

I shut my eyes tightly, tilting my head back to keep my tears in. "It's all my f-"

"Don't even start," Quistis cut in. "It's _not_ your fault."

"But I sent him ou-"

"Just like you would've done anyw-"

"But I _knew-_" I argued.

"You _didn't_," Quistis argued back.

"But the phone-"

"Coincidence," Quistis shrugged. "Pure coincidence." The confidence in her voice was back. She was always the strongest of the three of us though. Selphie and I always broke down at a certain point, but we had yet to see Quistis fall. She was always there to reassure us.

I sighed, leaning back in my seat and rubbing the bridge of my nose. "It can't have been..."

"It _had_ to have been Rinoa," she said reasonably.

"How do you know?"

It took her a moment to answer.

"I know."

* * *

Within an hour we were able to see Squall. Although, according to Quistis it had been at least two, possibly three hours. It amazed me how it was possible to lose track of time so. I had told Squall that he had half an hour to get back... but I found out that he was in a hospital over an hour after he left. I had been so absorbed in myself, in looking beautiful for him... in being so _vain_, I hadn't even noticed. In the past, if anything had gone wrong for either of us, I would know. I never really understood _how_ I knew... only that I always had a feeling. This time... I didn't even feel it... 

They left a chair by his bed for one of us to stay by him in case he woke up. I had suggested that we take turns, but Quistis and Selphie insisted that I stay.

"You're the first person he'll want to see," Selphie had said. I nodded, not wanting to argue.

I sent Irvine and Seifer out to get Squall's clothes, as his own that he had been wearing were damaged and thrown out already. They were his best friends. I doubted that he'd mind that _they_ went through his closet.

"We'll look into this too, Rinoa," Irvine said, patting my shoulder.

I smiled. "Thanks... but it's okay. Really. It's just an accident, right?"

"It's the least we could do," Seifer added in, his voice considerably different without his usual seemingly-egotistical air. "Just to make sure, you know?"

I let them go on their search, not entirely sure what they'd come up with. Selphie and Quistis left not too longer afterwards, saying that they needed to do some research on their own as well. I only shrugged in reply.

I held on to Squall's hand the entire time I was by him. I wanted to make sure he knew he wasn't alone and that I was there. Irvine poked his head through the door about an hour after he and Seifer left.

"Rin?" he asked quietly. "Where do you want us to put his clothes?"

"There by the sink is fine," I answered equally quiet and still shaky. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said as he put down the bag. He silently left the room moments later. Through the crack of the door I saw Quistis and Selphie waiting across the hall. As Irvine walked out, they nervously glanced in. Selphie cracked a smile when she saw me look up and waved before turning and following the others as they left. I sighed, turning my attention back to Squall.

It was getting extremely late. Visiting hours were well past over. A nurse came in around midnight wheeling a cart behind her.

"Still hasn't woken up yet, has he?" she asked solemnly. I shook my head. She sighed and turned around, pulling out a blanket and pillow for me. "Feel free to make your self comfortable, then," she said as she handed them to me. "As comfortable as you can get anyway."

"Thanks," I said, nodding in true appreciation. I put the pillow behind me against the backrest of the chair and began to unfold the blanket.

"Would you like a midnight snack, dear?" the nurse asked.

I shook my head. I hadn't eaten anything since lunch earlier that day, but I was in no mood to eat. Not while in a hospital. Not while my boyfriend was unconscious next to me.

"I'll be right down the hall if you need anything," she said before leaving the room. I only smiled a bit at her and placed my hands back over Squall's. When the door finally shut, I put my elbows on the side of his bed and leaned towards him.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered to him, stroking the back of his hand. "I shouldn't have even let you leave..."

I felt a tear trickle down my cheek as I brushed against his hand and kissed it.

"Please," I prayed. "Wake up... _wake up_. I need you with me..."

I slid off the chair and sat on the ground, my head laying on the bed with him. I stared at him, waiting for him to open his eyes and smile back, saying he was okay. In the dark night, I fell asleep before knowing if he ever did.

* * *

The next morning, a nurse woke me up and sent me back home. 

"The doctor will just be checking up on him," she said reassuringly. "That's all. No worries."

Apparently it the checking up on him took some time, so she told me to get home and get cleaned up.

I practically ran home, walking faster than ever, swerving between this person and that. I showered, changed and was out the door in under twenty minutes. As I ran through the doors of the hospital, someone behind me called out my name. I paused mid-step, turning.

"Rinoa!" Irvine called as he and Zell ran towards me.

"Hey, good to see you too," I said quickly, trying to be as polite as I could. "I have to go, so bye!"

I turned to continue my fast paced walking, but Irvine caught my arm.

"It's about Squall!" he said, making me freeze in my spot.

"What is it?" I asked cautiously. "Is he alright?" I asked as I looked down the hallway, wanting to run down it to his room.

"He's fine!" Irvine said, still holding on to my arm. He made a face for a moment, looking as though he was thinking, _What did I just say?_ "Last time we checked he was. Seifer and I-"

"Don't tell me you actually found something," I said as I stared blankly at him.

Irvine grimaced. "Sort of... Seifer's working on it. I've got a start..." He turned to Zell beside him, who in turn, looked to another friend that had shown up beside him.

I raised my eyebrow. Who was this guy?

"Erm..." all three looked back and forth between each other, seemingly nervous but anxious as well.

"Well..." the guy started. He quickly looked to Zell, obviously asking for some help.

Zell rolled his eyes and sighed before looking up at me. "Okay, well... do you remember those weird calls you got?"

"Yeah..." I said weakly, not really wanting to remember them.

"And you know how you said they were from my number?"

I nodded. He pointed over to his friend with his thumb.

"He's the guy that ended up with my old number."

It had been apparently big to the three of them boys (or four, if you count Seifer who probably did some researching work as well). Seeing my confused expression, the new guy began to explain.

"I... I've been calling you," he said. His voice wasn't like it was on the phone. If he hadn't told me, I probably wouldn't have even guessed it.

I stood in shock. I rubbed my temples, shaking my head. "Okay... so first Squall's in an accident, and _now_ you're tell me _this_? What-"

"And I think I made the threats that scared you," he mumbled, looking down in shame. _Think?_

My eyebrows rose. My jaw dropped. Before it even fully clicked in my mind, I suddenly found myself leaping at him and was more emotional than ever (and in a hospital for that matter). Irvine and Zell grabbed me and held me back as I wiggled and dived to get to the other guy, tears begin to fall and my temper running hot.

"What is your _problem_!" I asked him between gasps. I stopped wiggling. It was wearing me down. With that and my crying, I had a hard time breathing. "Not only did you call my private, personal number... you _stalked_ me, you _threatened_ me, you should be charged fo-"

"It was his fault!" he blurted out, pointing at Zell.

I turned my head to Zell, who seemed as equally shocked as I was.

"_My_ fault?"

"Yeah, 'cause you couldn't get the hell over her!"

"_What?_" Zell let go of me and stared at his friend in even more shock I slipped out of Irvine's grasp while they debated - apparently, the boys needed a referee as well - and ran down to Squall's room as fast as I could.

"Wait - Rinoa!" Irvine called. I ignored him and kept walking, just barely avoiding a collision with a nurse as I rounded the corner. When I got to Squall's room, I shut and locked the door, leaning against it and taking a breath. I waited. No one followed me. I breathed a sigh of relief, unlocking the door as I got up and sitting down next to Squall. I took his hand and leaned against his bed again.

Did this mean that Zell's friend did this to Squall? He did, after all, threaten to do something to Squall. Not to mention he hadn't denied stalking me. And Zell... _Zell_ _hadn't gotten over me?_

"I can't make decisions to save my life," I mumbled to myself. My eyes and cheeks were still slightly wet. The tears never fell. It was much too late for that. But they kept on coming and drying, coming and drying.

"Help me Squall... what should I do now?"

* * *

Later that day, Squall's condition didn't seem to get any better. If anything, it worsened. He had yet to wake up, eat... anything. His breathing was normal only with the help of an oxygen mask. His doctors stopped by again and checked up on him. They sent me home afterwards, telling me that they'd call me if anything changed. 

"I know you're worried," the head doctor had said. "We all are. There's nothing we can do now. We can only wait."

I walked home slowly, not really wanting to leave him in that big, lonely hospital. He'd probably adjust... a bit. He'd understand why I wasn't there if he woke up... probably.

I passed the cafe, sneaking a peak in and seeing Irvine, Zell and that weird guy seriously discussing something with Quistis, Seifer and Selphie. Probably me. We definitely hadn't met on pleasant terms. I quickly walked past it though, not wanting to stop by and talk.

Someone must've spotted me. Within three minutes of arriving back home, there was a knock at my door and all six stood in the doorway.

"We didn't finish talking," Irvine said right when I opened the door. He made his way in before I could say anything. The others followed in, the girls more hesitant than the boys.

"Well, hello to you to," I said sarcastically to the air. I shut the door and found them all comfortable on the couch already. I sat down across from them and sighed.

No one said a word.

"Well..." I started, seeing if anyone would continue off of that. No one did though. They were all in deep thought. "This is nice."

Sarcasm rolled off my tongue. I began to get up, but Irvine stopped me.

"Wait," he said, not looking up from the floor. "We'll start. But you can't do anything irrational until at least after we're done talking. Got it?"

I raised my eyebrow. _Irrational?_ Why on earth he thought I would do something irrational was beyond me.

I sat back down and let them start.

Zell spoke up first. "Right, so you know the first part of it-"

I tilted me head. Oh really?

"At the hospital?"

"Right," I said. "It's always nice to meet your stalker and have tea with him." I couldn't fight the urge for sarcastic replies for some reason.

Zell made a face. "Rinoa..."

"I'm done, really."

"And the reason was because..."

"You couldn't get over me, right?" I finished for him, my patience growing thin. "I got that much at the hospital."

Zell shook his head. "I _did._ A while ago. But..."

"We don't get to see each other very often," his friend cut in. "The last time I saw him, he came back from here and was angry because apparently you were seeing some one else."

"He got the wrong impression..."

"... and I started a chain of events."

The two stopped, staring at me. That was definitely _not_ enough of an explanation for me though.

"Continue..." I said softly, waving my hand.

"Erm..." the two looked at each other. _What else was there to explain?_

"How'd you get my number?" I asked them. "And how'd you get it so that Zell's number would call?"

"He likes to steal my cell phone," Zell said quickly, trying to point attention away from him. "So I just gave it to him."

His friend looked back hesitantly. "Um... so yeah, I got your number from his phone. Because it's mine now."

My icy exterior had yet to fade away. "And the phone calls and messages?"

"Well the first time he caught me-"

"You were calling _her_?" Zell cut in with a surprised face. I smacked my head. _Here we go again with new things that we find out..._

"I thought you guys got over this already..."

"We are," the two said together. His friend continued.

"After that you didn't answer the phone, so I was a bit surprised when you did answer. So I threw in something random about getting back at you... and then..."

"And then you got creepy and stalker-esque."

"Yeah..." he rubbed the back of his neck in shame. "I live in the floor below you now... so I thought, hey... I could follow this chick around and creep her out some."

I raised my eyebrows. So _that's_ how he did it.

"When I heard about your fight-"

"How'd you hear about our fight?" I asked him. I didn't tell anyone about that... did I?

"Well, normally you guys come home together. When you came home alone..." he drifted off, shrugging.

"Right." I nodded.

"So I thought it'd be kind of fun to scare you even more, so I followed you around that day... called you that one night and... told you that I'd kill him..."

His voice faded away. We all stayed quiet.

"So you thought it'd be fun?" I asked him quietly, building up and getting louder. "If you just wait a while for us to forget, and then just casually run him over with a car?"

"No!" he exclaimed. "I didn't-"

"My boyfriend is in the hospital now," I spat at him. "And _you_ put him there!"

"I didn't do it!" he yelled back.

"You made the threats, you stalked me... you _told_ me that you would do something to h-"

"But I didn't!" he argued. "I didn't!"

"Then explain wh-"

"He didn't, Rinoa," Seifer cut in sternly. "It was an accident."

I stopped fighting and stood up straight, trying to come as close to eye to eye as I could with Seifer.

"Do not tell me it was a coincidence again," I murmured irritably. "Quistis already gave me that crap, and I didn't believe it for a moment."

"But it _was_," he said as bent down, his glare matching mine. "Because the guy who did it isn't standing in this room."

My eyes narrowed. "Prove it."

I had no idea what I was thinking when I said it. What were they supposed to do? Drag me down to the station and show me some guy in a jail cell? Irvine let go of me though and grabbed a folder that was in Quistis's lap.

"Here," he said, waving it back and forth. "... is your proof."

He threw it on to the coffee table. I watched it slide across the glossy surface, coming to a stop right in front of me and Seifer. I picked it up slowly, suspiciously. I opened it and scanned its contents

"So this guy's wanted to for repeatedly driving under the influence," I shrugged. "What does this prove?"

"Keep looking through it," Irvine said. They all waited patiently for me to read through every page. Apparently, everyone had already seen this file except me.

"I don't see anything..." I whined softly as I finally flipped to the last page. I froze when I saw it. There was a black-and-white copy of a photograph dated yesterday. A car had driven right up a sidewalk and into a lamp pole. On the hood of it, a vaguely familiar, unconscious man. I had to blink twice to get it through to my head.

"No way," I whispered, shaking my head furiously. I dropped the folder on to the table and backed away from it, trying to get it as far away from me as possible. "No way! You can't possibly... _how did you get a copy of that? _Police can't show these records to _anyone_-"

"Except themselves," Seifer said, nodding. "You forget who I am Rinoa."

I winced, shaking my head. Seifer Almasy... from a line of reigning police officers. _Of course._

I walked over and leaned back, crashing down on the couch between Selphie and Quistis. I held my head in my hands.

"This is too much," I cried. "How could you guys give this all to me in one day?"

Quistis put her arm around me in a motherly sort of way and hold my head as I was on the verge of crying. Selphie took my hand and comforted me in a similar fashion. The four boys stood across from me.

Zell looked down at me apologetically. He shifted his position and stuffed his hands in his pockets, clearing his throat.

"We'll let you guys handle things now," he said quietly to Seifer and Irvine. They nodded as a reply. Irvine led Zell and his friend to the door. A strange feeling arose inside of me as I heard the door clicked shut.

"Everything will be okay, Rinoa," Seifer said, bending down next to Quistis. "I'll make sure the ass gets every ounce of punishment he deserves."

I didn't say anything. I stared out the window across from me blankly. My eyes were glossed over. "Something's happened to Squall..." I said in a monotone voice. I looked at the clock. "It's 7 o'clock... something's happened. Something's wrong..."

"Nothing's wrong, Rin," Selphie whispered comfortingly. "It'll all work out, you'll see."

It didn't help at all.

* * *

It got late into the night, the sun setting and getting extremely dark. The rain continued to pour. Giant puddles formed in the street. After Zell and his friend shut the door and out into that rain, I had an empty feeling in my chest. I didn't say much afterwards, mostly listening to what Seifer had to say about the accident. 

The man driving had apparently been charged in the past for reckless driving, as well as for disruption of the peace. He ran from his car, but since it was the same one as his last case, police recognized it almost right away. He was known for being drunk, but wasn't drunk at all when he had hit Squall. He was, in fact, simply speeding and couldn't stop. He had never put anyone in critical care before though. It was a possibility that he could be charged with manslaughter for doing so, depending on Squall's condition.

Selphie and I stayed quiet, casually exchanging a few words to pass the time. I vented to her for a little while about all that I had to take in for the day... Squall in the hospital, his worsening condition, Zell's friend, seeing the accident with my own eyes... the empty feeling by my heart never seemed to go away. At 9 o'clock that night, the hospital called.

Quistis picked up the first time. Her eyes dimmed as she nodded and handed the phone to me. I didn't have to look at her to understand.

I took the phone from her. Five seconds later, it fell to the floor.

_At seven fourteen, Squall Leonhart had flat lined._

* * *

Several attempts were made to save Squall. They tried so many times after his heart monitor went flat at 7 o'clock that day. None were successful. 

Seifer picked up the phone and talked to the nurses for me after I dropped the phone. He walked into my bedroom and shut the door so I didn't have to hear the explanation or anything that would hurt me even more. Everyone seemed frozen in their spot. Quistis sat alone on the biggest couch, in complete shock and awe. Selphie and Irvine sat together on the loveseat, equally shocked and hurt. No one cried up a storm harder than I did.

I was curled on the floor by the wall where I had taken the phone from Quistis. I leaned my back against the wall for support, but it didn't help. The tears fell and fell, despite all of my attempts to stop them. I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't think... when Seifer came out of my room, I practically screamed. _He was gone... forever._

The days that followed were all a blur. The funeral was arranged by his father. My own father flew in and attended the service as well, knowing exactly how much it meant to me. He stayed with me in my apartment for a few days, but neither of us really spoke to one another. I had been asked to say a few words and help out at the funeral, but declined, not having the will power to do so. It was said that no man should have to bury his son as Laguna was doing... no young woman should have to bury her lover either.

The day of the funeral was fitting... a rainy day. How typical. I had always loved rainy days like it... and our first kiss had been in the rain. A month before, we were dancing and laughing in the rain together... he'd come out and chase me around the empty streets. He had died on a day not much different from those. Everyone had umbrellas up at the funeral, and hurried home afterwards, but I stayed after, not wanting to leave his side.

I stopped dancing in the rain, stopped smiling and laughing through the rain. I visited Squall every time it rained, telling him stories of us, my life and anything else I could think of to pass the time.

Seifer and Quistis took me home after I walked back from his grave, making sure that I actually made it home.

"Take care," Quistis had said, holding me in the motherly way that she always did. She was always my support... she and Squall. And now she was the only one left.

I smiled a bit and nodded, trying my best to stop crying after a week of doing so. I walked in and found my father inside, who also comforted me in a similar manner.

"If you ever need me," he said pleasantly before leaving. "I'm just a phone call away."

My father was always distant, although he tried to be the best father he could be. He left that night, after the funeral, for a business trip across the country. I gave him a hug as he left and shut the door.

I continued my life as well as I could, succeeding in completing my schooling, getting a job. It always felt empty without him though, and I never forgot to cry whenever I thought about that fateful rainy day.

* * *

**A/N:** And there you are... the end of _Rainy Days._

I hope everyone sort of caught on with some of the connections that I tried to make. Introducing Zell at the beginning, and his semi-important role to tie it all together. How the stalking started later on, and not early off. Things like that. I don't remember _all_ of them myself, but I tried. If anyone wants reasons for any other unanswered question was left open, just let me know and I'll PM you back. xD There were some major clues along the way... some minor ones... but hopefully I wasn't _too_ predictable in my ending. I hate being predictable... hopefully that last twist at the end kept me from being so.

I first got the idea for this fic in 2003! Can you believe that? At first, it wasn't eve a FF8 story. And the plot line was up to about the 5th chapter. I stopped writing for a while, and then changed it a bit and reposted it on here in 2004. Again, I stopped writing at about the 4th or 5th chapter. I picked it up again in the summer of 2005, and finally completed it now, at the end of 2005. It took me a while, but I'm quite proud of it. It's my first multiple-chapter story that I've actually completed.

And lastly, before I let it all go... what shall I write next? As I get older, I'm getting busier and busier as well, but... I have to say, I kind of do enjoy writing. Even if it takes me forever. I really should be focusing on school more, but I just can't help it! In my profile are some ideas... _which you like to see in 2006?_ Let me know in your review!


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